The American Classic Arcade Museum @ PAX-East 2013

[mstulir]

The American Classic Arcade Museum (ACAM) is proud to announce that we are returning to PAX-East. The event will be held March 22-24, 2013 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in Boston, MA. As in past years, we will be providing the PAX-East retro arcade full of classic 1970's and 1980's arcade video games. Attendance is expected to exceed 80,000 attendees.

 

In 2010, the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) held their first East Coast event in Boston after running a hugely successful event for many years in Seattle. Gary Vincent, President of The American Classic Arcade Museum, had first been approached by the promoters of the Expo in late 2009 to help create an exhibit of classic arcade games at the first PAX-East. The American Classic Arcade Museum had become a powerful presence, and having the Museum create the exhibit for PAX-East seemed logical to the event organizers. Gary and the ACAM crew took 21 video games to the Expo in 2010 and set up a small arcade in a private room off of the main Expo floor.

 

Over the last few years as the PAX-East event has grown, the ACAM presence has grown along with it. This year, ACAM will have two 24-foot trucks stuffed with close to 50 arcade games & a small army of staffers. ACAM will also be holding two panel sessions with video game industry insiders and former arcade game developers.

 

“I was concerned that first year,” said Vincent. “I knew the focus of the Expo was on newer games so I wasn’t sure how people would respond to us. It took about thirty seconds until all my concerns went away. The room was packed from the moment we opened the doors and all throughout the weekend. The most interesting thing to me was that I would say the average age of the crowd at the Expo was in their mid-20s and many of them had never experienced an arcade before.”

 

Mike Stulir, Board member for The American Classic Arcade Museum, couldn’t be happier with the way things came together over the last few years. “ACAM’s facility is very family-friendly in terms of lighting, music & environment. However, we feel a need to have some presentation of what the average arcade was like back during the heyday of the neighborhood arcade. PAX-East has become our annual time to pull out all of the stops and recreate that late 1970’s to early 1980’s arcade environment with a darkened room booming with era-appropriate music." Stulir says that the Museum is able to participate in events like PAX-East, MAGFest and Escapist Expo due to the notoriety and respect the Museum has earned since it’s founding. “Our position as the leader in arcade game historical preservation is due to the hard work of Gary Vincent, Bob Lawton, our Board of Directors and our volunteers. We have built a strong reputation not just with the gaming community, but with the game developers as well. We are especially proud of our close relationship with the PAX-East staff, and we expect to be part of this show for many years to come."

 

The concept of the Museum came almost by accident. ACAM is located within the Funspot Family Entertainment Center in Weirs Beach, NH. Having been a manager at the Funspot for man years, Gary and Funspot owner Bob Lawton were looking at all of the old video games they had back in 1996. Many of them were not in use on the floor anymore. Gary said “We have so many, we should start a museum.”

 

And that’s exactly what they did.

 

ACAM was founded and established as the first 501c3 non-profit facility dedicated to the preservation, history and play of classic arcade games. Today, The American Classic Arcade Museum encompasses almost all of Funspot’s third level. It also helped Funspot become the recognized as the largest arcade in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records. Over the years as more machines were added by being purchased or donated, the American Classic Arcade Museum soon became the Mecca for arcade game enthusiasts, and the merely curious. It is now the largest collection of fully operational video games from the 1980s in the world. In fact, every year players from around the world come to Funspot to play in the Museum’s International Classic Video Game Tournament. The museum has gained national and international recognition being highlighted in ESPN: The Magazine, MSNBC, EDGE Magazine, Retro Gamer, The Escapist, Yankee Magazine, in-flight airline publications and locally in NH to DO magazine & The Boston Globe. ACAM has also been the backdrop for several feature films, including the critically acclaimed “King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.”

 

Tickets for PAX-East are almost sold out. For info, visit http://www.paxsite.com

 

To learn more about The American Classic Arcade Museum, or to find out how you can contribute to our preservation efforts, visit http://www.classicarcademuseum.org

Edited February 16, 2013 by mstulir

[mstulir]

The American Classic Arcade Museum is pleased to announce the following panel session at PAX-East 2013 in Boston, MA:

 

ACAM – CLASSIC VIDEOGAME PANEL

Saturday, March 23rd, 2013

Boston Convention & Exhibition Center -- Corgi Theatre @ at 4:30pm

 

Join Mike Stulir of The American Classic Arcade Museum as he discusses the birth of the video game industry, and the classic age of console and arcade video games. Appearing with Mike are legendary arcade game designers including the people behind arcade games such as "Super Missile Attack," "Ms. Pac-Man," "Food Fight," "Quantum" & the "Cruis'n" series of driving games. Console representation will include designers of the Atari 7800 hardware/launch titles, and Atari 2600 games such as "Kangaroo," “Centipede,” & "Joust."

 

Moderator:

Mike Stulir, The American Classic Arcade Museum

 

Panelists & Special Guests:

Steve Golson

Jonathan Hurd

Eric Pribyl

Mike Horowitz

Kevin Osborn

Carlos Smith

Tom Flaherty

Mike Feinstein

Betty Tylko

Josh Littlefield

 

Tickets for PAX-East are almost sold out. For info, visit http://www.paxsite.com

 

More info on The American Classic Arcade Museum can be found at http://www.classicarcademuseum.org

[mstulir]

The American Classic Arcade Museum is pleased to announce the following panel session at PAX-East 2013 in Boston, MA:

 

ACAM – PRESERVING VIDEOGAME HISTORY

Sunday, March 24th, 2013

Boston Convention & Exhibition Center -- Sphinx Theatre @ 1:00pm

 

What happens to the source code, development equipment and historical information from all of those video games from the 1970's & 1980's? Why is that historical material important to museum facilities and current/future generations of game developers? The American Classic Arcade Museum and our guest panelists will answer those questions, and describe the importance, value and methodology of preserving video game history.

 

Moderator:

Mike Stulir: The American Classic Arcade Museum

 

Panelists:

Gary Vincent: President, The American Classic Arcade Museum

John Andersen: Gaming historian and freelance writer

Joey DeSena: Co-host of "Retroware TV" series "The Video Game Years"

Jonathan Ferguson: Instructor in Game Design and Production for The Game Studio at Champlain College

 

Tickets for PAX-East are almost sold out. For info, visit http://www.paxsite.com

 

More info on The American Classic Arcade Museum can be found at http://www.classicarcademuseum.org

[+Allan]

Two years in a row you posted here about this event but both times the tickets are/were already sold out.

 

Allan

[mstulir]

Two years in a row you posted here about this event but both times the tickets are/were already sold out.

 

Allan

 

As I stated above, tickets are almost, but not completely sold out. 3-Day passes are sold out and "Saturday" tickets are sold out. Tickets are still available for Friday and Sunday. You have to understand that the tickets go on sale in October, but exhibitors don't generally have their plans finalized until 30-60 days before the event.

 

Video from the 2012 event, including our videogame and pinball panel sessions, can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/user/acam1998

Edited February 16, 2013 by mstulir

[+Allan]

That's too bad. I would have loved to go to see the GCC guys but they are only there on Saturday. That's a little weird system you got there. You have to buy the tickets before you even know who the speakers are going to be? There has to be a better way. Oh well.

 

Allan

[mstulir]

That's a little weird system you got there. You have to buy the tickets before you even know who the speakers are going to be?

 

Allan

 

Not my "system" at all. Generally speaking, when you start contacting people 6 or 7 months in advance and ask for them to participate in a panel, the response is to call back back 30-45 days before the show. There is not a thing I can do about that. Besides, there is so much going on during that event that buying tickets well in advance is the only way to ensure you get in. The show attracts 80,000 people.

[RickHarrisMaine]

I just bought 2 tickets this morning for my son and I! I am utterly excited for this!

[cbroddy]

Where was the arcade section

[mstulir]

Where was the arcade section

 

Room 102 next to the "Corgi" Theatre.

[mstulir]

Here is the video from ACAM's Classic Video Game Developer panel at PAX-East 2013. More videos to come.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBUeqwAd0u4

Edited April 3, 2013 by mstulir