Apparently Pat the NES Punk is crazy enough to do it again! Saturday is his 2nd Annual NES Marathon. Last year he played through the entire NES collection with a buddy Ian for 30 hours straight. When talking with Pat about this years marathon, he noted that last years was pretty tough, “I was awake for like 40+ hours. After the marathon I actually fell asleep during dinner. For the next two days, everything was in slow motion.”
This year’s NES Marathon will be a little more sane. Pat explained, “I’ll be playing through 100 great games. There will be some events and surprises like an exclusive game review by the Angry Video Game Nerd.” Online viewer turnout for the first NES Marathon was fantastic with 60,000+ viewers. Just like last year, the goal of this marathon is to raise money for the charity Child’s Play. Pat & Ian will be thumb-mashing with the hope of raising $15,000. Please tune in and donate at NESMarathon.com on Saturday, October 22, 2011!
Either someone put a flux capacitor into my Honda Accord, or a group of collectors in Southern California just gathered for some serious retro gaming. My wife Amber and I just attend our first SC3 meeting. For those of you who are new to the Southern California Classic Collectors group like me, let me fill you in. A bunch of private collectors bring together a fantastic, and I mean freak’n fantastic, assortment of their retro arcade machines and home consoles. For $10 each, Amber and I had unlimited playtime on machines like Zoo Keeper, Cosmic Chasm, Jungle King, Paperboy, Tron, Satan’s Hollow, Gorf, Burger Time…and the list goes on!
Our favorites were easily Warlords and Turkey Shoot! I’d love to meet the guy who invented Turkey Shoot. If you’re unfamiliar with it, here’s the deal. Turkeys are robbing banks, and you have to shoot them before they get sacks of money off the screen. Naturally, you get hand grenades and, yes, a “gobble” button. If that wasn’t great enough, after you die, a fan blows real feathers in front of the screen. Yup, awesome.
Warlords was pretty great too. I’m a big fan of Rampart and would simply describe Warlords and a fast-paced mix of Rampart and 4-player Pong. This seemed to be one of the most popular and socially interactive machines on the floor! Great machine!
We had a little sale table at the event. It was great to sell some video game repair tools and to chat with other collectors. However, I was happy to know that people at SC3 function on an honor system with buying and trading. That meant we didn’t have to camp out at our table and spent a majority of our time out on the arcade floor!
Mike Kennedy of GameGavel.com did a pretty great raffel in which every ticket holder got a prize.? Well done Mike!
SC3 was a hit, and we’re already looking forward to the next one!
As frustrating as it was to get tickets for this year’s SDCC, we had a fantastic time! Seriously, who doesn’t love seeing a grown man dressed as an Ewok? Or how about all your favorite stuff turned into life-sized Legos statues?!? There was plenty of rad and geeky stuff! As per usual, the place was a freak’n zoo. So, if you couldn’t make it yourself, the good news it that we took a ton of photos, and you get to enjoy them crowd-free.
COSTUMES: Hands down, my favorite thing about Comic-Con is people watching. The costumes are fantastic!? Naturally, these costumes raise the question, who would win in a fight? Inigo Montoya or Kratos?
GAMING: Naturally, the gaming booths were my top priority. Overall, the gaming section seemed a bit smaller than previous years and was fairly spread out. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception looked just as beautiful as the previous Uncharted games. Dragon’s Dogma caught my eye, and I enjoyed a bit of hands-on time with it. It felt like a typical hack & slash, and looked nice graphically.
LEGOS: Somehow life-sized Lego statues just make life better. Highlights were a Lego Boba Fett, Batman, Green Lantern, Sponge Bob, Captain Jack Sparrow, etc.
BACK TO THE FUTURE: When I was about six years old, I remember betting a cousin 50 pushups that the hover boards in the Back to the Future movies were real. Seriously, I was positive that some filthy rich kid could go down to Toys R Us and buy one (probably the same kid who could afford a Neo Geo). Let me tell you, it was a real treat for the six-year old inside of me to see the original hover boards from the movies. There were a ton of movie props on display as well as the original DeLorean! Needless to say, seeing all this stuff up close, my heart was beating at about 88 mph!
We only managed to do one day of the San Diego Comic-Con this year, but we covered a ton of grown in the few hours we had to dedicate to Saturday’s show. See below for the rest of the photos we took. I’d especially recommend checking out the Star Wars permanent marker art Volkswagen car and the Iron Maiden lunchbox…yup, an Iron Maiden lunchbox… Oh the glory of Comic-Con!
Curious about the history of 3D gaming? Here’s a fantastic interview on 3D gaming history by Jason Reed at Wizard World’s Anaheim Comic Con 2011! This interview highlights the following 3-D video game milestones as well as Nintendo’s early roots in motion gaming:
1983 Vectrex 3D Imager
1987 Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Square Enix’s 3D Anaglyph Glasses for the games 3-D World Runner & Rad Racer
We’d like to thank Jason for the overwhelming surprise of putting this all together. The quality of this video and interview speaks for itself. Well done and many thanks!
You want to know the power of a NES Power Glove? Add it (or a NES Zapper) to a bunch of Comic-Con fans, stormtroopers, Batman, Link, or other people in costumes, and you’ll be amazed at the results.
This past weekend thousands of Comic Con fans converged on Wizard World’s Anaheim Comic Con, and it was an absolute blast! ?We had a table there to promote retro gaming, showcasing the history of 3D gaming, game cleaning techniques, and, naturally, this site. I can’t say enough what a great time we had! ?But then again, that’s pretty evident from the photos.
R2-D2
Besides all the fun I had at our booth, I have to say my favorite part was the R2-D2 Builders Club! In case it isn’t obvious from the title, this is a group of guys and gals who literally build their own driods! Each “R” unit is custom built…and loved. It was beyond awesome to watch guys driving their R2s around the showroom floor. ?From the guys I talked to, the units with batteries generally weigh between 120-160 lbs. Depending on setup and use, they get several hours or more of operation time per charge. Sure enough, the units at the show moved like R2-D2, made his sounds, had spinning heads, and articulating front arms thingys. Freak’n awesome!
Costumes
As with any Comic Con, the costumes were the best part. Naturally, there were a good number of Star Wars characters: stormtroopers, bounty hunters, jedi, etc! Other favorites were Batman (posing with my Power Glove…yup, he loves gadgets), Super Man, Wonderwoman, Chun-Lee, Ryu, Deadmou5, Mario, Ghostbusters (pretty popular this year), Indiana Jones, Gumby (check out the Gumby w zapper photo!), Gambit, Wolverine, Captain American, Iron Man, Deadmau5, and I’m probably forgetting a bunch of others!
Let’s be honest, what situation isn’t improved by adding a NES Zapper or Power Glove?!
History of 3D Gaming Video Game Museum Display
It was pretty great to watch people interact with the systems (NES & Vectrex) we had set up for free play. Given our 3D gaming display, we wanted to give people the opportunity to have a 1987 3D gaming experience. Thus, we gave out anaglyph 3D glasses (red & blue) and had people try Rad Racer in 3D mode. Just as when we were kids, people at the booth were underwhelmed with the game’s 3D mode. Maybe about 1/20 people actually thought it even looked 3D. Probably 3/4 reported getting a headache immediately. We more or less knew that would be the reaction going, and it made for a great conversation piece, and it demonstrated how far we’ve come in gaming technology since 1987.
Whenever people mentioned that they had one of the 3D items as a kid, I’d also try to ask them what they thought of it back in the day. After all, it’s pretty easy to judge our past tech, by comparing it to our current tech. Things have come a long way now that we have a 3D capable PlayStation 3 and Nintenodo 3DS handheld on the market, but I was curious to find out what people though of it back in the day. I’ll try to post some of those pieces of feedback when I get a chance.
Retro Gaming Smiles
It was pretty exciting to watch people’s reactions to the retro gaming items that we had on the table. Most were genuinely excited to try on the Power Glove. Many of them had seen it in the movie “The Wizard” but had never touched one in real life. Heck, even kids who were born a decade after the Power Glove loved trying it on! Trying to explain to these kids that this was Nintendo’s first attempt at a “Wii” type motion control was pretty fun.
Gamers United
One final highlight from the 2011 Comic Con was the booth right next to us: Gamers United. This fantastic group is dedicated to showcasing the positive aspects of games. For example, one thing they do is to place gaming items in hospitals as diversionary and rehab tools. They’re based right here in Southern California, and I look forward to working with them in the future!
Wrap Up
By the end of the weekend, I was beyond exhausted. We met a ton of fantastic people, had a great time chatting with them about retro gaming, and I’m looking forward to Wizard World’s next Comic Con!
Feel free to take a stroll through the rest of our photos below.
Contest Details: Contest open to United States residents only. No purchase necessary. Participant must “Like” VideoGameMuseum.com through Facebook.com by midnight PST on May 3rd, 2011. Drawing will take place on the Wednesday, May 4th, 2011. Winner will be drawn at random and contacted through Facebook. Winner must claim NES within 7 days of drawing by responding to VideoGameMuseum.com staff through Facebook messaging, must supply a United States shipping address, and must agree to have individual’s name published on VideoGameMuseum’s webpage, Facebook page, and Twitter. For questions, contact: mark@videogamemuseum.com.
Is there any game more famous than Tetris? Could any game have more replay value? More universal appeal?
On August 8, 2010 history was written.? The greatest Tetris players converged upon the Downtown Independent Theater? in Los Angeles, CA to find the answer to one simple question:? Who is the Greatest Tetris player on earth?
I was honored to be a vendor at the Classic Tetris World Championship, to witness the answering of this question, and to meet the people and personalities connected with this fantastic game!
My booth was fairly simple. I’m a video game collector, so I brought along a table full of my extras. Although I did make a few sales, the better part seemed to be meeting each person who came by my booth.
GirlGamer.com came by and interviewed me as part of their live stream of the event. (Part 1: You can find me starting at 26 minutes in.)
When I noticed Harry Hong looking over my games, I introduced myself and told him that I recognized him from his Tetris videos. He humbly introduced me to the red-headed guy beside him. “Jonas is pretty good too,” explained Hong. At that point, I had no idea who Jonas Neubauer was, but I figured I’d try to get all of the finalists to sign a boxed Tetris for my collection. I ask the two of them for their autographs, and Neubauer signed the box asking, “Do you mind if I write a saying?” He wrote out, “To a fellow Blockhead!”
Little did I know at the time that these were the two best Tetris players in the world.? Just hours in the future, the two would have eliminated all other semifinalists to face each other for the title. As Neubauer walked away, he commented on signing my game, “Thanks for asking me to sign that. That made my day!” I smiled to myself thinking, “Cool guy…I hope he’s actually a semifinalist and that I just didn’t get some random dude to sign my box…”
At 3:00pm, we wrapped up the booth by raffling off an original top loading NES system and some random NES carts. Congratulations to Quan Chi from 120-Games for winning the top loader!
The competition itself was phenomenal.? It was like going to a sporting event, except everyone was cheering for their favorite athlete/gamer.
What really seemed to get the crowd going was the video intro by the creator of Tetris Alexey Pajitnov.
Trey Harrison: Former Nintendo World Championship competitor. Echo Park, CA.
Dana Wilcox: A crowd favorite. Oakland, CA
Matt Buco: A walk-in to the competition. As I talked to Matt pre-game, he explained that he was playing much better after taking the edge off with a couple beers. New York
Ben Mullen: 1st place with the record for the most lines in a Tetris game. Minnesota
Jesse Kelkar: Hold the 2nd place record for the number of lines in a Tetris game. Los Angeles, CA
Harry Hong: Hong was the first player on record to max out Tetris on the NES. Los Angeles, CA
Jonas Neubauer: Able to max out Tetris score starting at Level 19. Los Angeles, CA
Each of the players was amazing. Naturally, even their worst day playing Tetris would put most of us to shame.
Preliminary Round 1:
The first round was simply for lines. Each player needed to get the most lines possible. That means that neither time nor score mattered. Heck, getting a “Tetris” (aka 4 lines at once) didn’t even matter. Neubauer came out on top of this first round with 294. Tied behind him were Harry Hong and Ben Mullen who both had scores of 290. Surprisingly, Thor Aackerlund seemed to choke during this first round with a score of just 89 points.
Preliminary Round 2:
The second round was for score. Thus, getting a “Tetris” was important again. This round was also untimed. But let’s be honest. Each of the competitors was lightening fast! Thor made a fantastic comeback in Round 2 showing the crowd that he still had it! Naturally, the crowd went wild with Thor’s 469,454 point victory! Following behind him were Neubauer and Hong.
Preliminary Round 3:
The third and final round in the preliminaries was identical to the second round. However, and like the rounds before it, Hong and Neubauer were neck and neck. The round finished with Hong in first place, Neubauer in second, and Thor in third. Had Thor done better in his first round, he may have had a chance for the final; however, he and the other six contestants were eliminated.
There was some downtime between the preliminary rounds and the finals, so I decided to do a little meet and greet. I talked with Thor Aackerlund and asked him how he felt about the competition. He got a big smile on his face and explained, “It’s time to pass the torch to a new generation. I ended up exactly where I wanted to be [in the competition], right in the middle.” Thor had a great attitude. He played was happy to step out of the spotlight and to allow someone new to step into it.
The Finals:
Who would have thought that Tetris could be sport enjoyed by spectators, hecklers, and geeks going nuts? Watching the entire competition was a blast, but the finals were the natural climax. While Hong and Neubauer are both incredibly talented players, Neubauer seemed to keep the cooler head during the competition. Hong played fantastically, but he stumbled twice. Although he made brilliant recoveries each time, his errors cost him. Neubauer, a more slow and steady player during the competition, gained his two out of three wins over Hong to claim the title of Classic Tetris World Champion!
(YouTube playlist for all 8 videos we took of event.)
While Harry Hong was awarded with a new Wii and games for second place, Jonas Neubauer went home with $1,000 reward, a huge trophy, and some serious Tetris bragging rights! Yup, I’m pretty sure I want to be Jonas when I grow up…
None of this would have been possible without the endless hours of work that Vince Clemente put into pulling this all off. He’s the man behinds the scenes who pulled all this off. Additionally, Sergio (aka “The Applemonkey”) did a great job pulling together vendors! Well done guys!
Vader-Fett School of Pimp’n? Lego R2-D2?! Seriously!? Does life get any better? Sunday’s 2010 Comic-Con was a blast!
Costumes:
As per usual, costumes were the highlight of the day. Yep, I wasn’t kidding about the Bobba Fett & Darth Vader pimp suits. Batman & Catwoman + Boba Pimp = ?
Yep…and all four at once, amazing! And then Super Duff Man meets his super hero son.
If Samus was a woman…why not Mario & Luigi
Displays:
Perhaps my second most favorite thing about Comic-Con is how great the art and displays are. The Green Hornet car looks unbelievable in person. And, what kid didn’t want to build a Lego R2-D2 at some point?
Video Game Promos:
The Dead Rising 2 promo involved getting onto a dirt bike that had chainsaws duct taped to each handle bar (one had broken off by Sunday) and getting to hold your choice of a weapon. While the less crafty Comic-Con goers chose to hold baseball bats and shot guns, my instincts told me to grab the dynamite-strapped teddy bear…
Feel free to look through the rest of the VideoGameMuseum.com Comic-Con photos. We’re already looking forward to next year!
