NWCGE: A perspective..

[desiv]

OK, let me start by setting the background...

 

I've never been to a gaming expo of any kind.

 

I had a personal loss 7 months ago, which has got me back into my past hobby (gaming), but I'm still not over it, so I'm not enjoying things that I think I normally would...

 

But with that out of the way...

 

I went up with a few goals...

 

I wanted to get a Ms Pacman for the 7800.

I wanted to get Dark Chambers for the 7800.

I wanted to get some voice enabled games for my Odyssey 2. (I have a voice module, but no voice games.. :-(

I wanted to get a Buck Rogers TAPE for my Coleco Adam. (I had 2 copies that I ruined before I realized my tape drive was destrying tapes.. Drive replaced, tapes ruined..)

I was hoping maybe for some organizers for the carts...

 

Now, here's what my day was like.. Knowing the Expo started at 10:00, I decided to leave the house by 6am.. Yes, I'm 4 hours away.. So I wake up.. and go back to sleep.. Leave the house by 8:20.. :-)

 

Get there about 12:30... Start looking around.. There's some systems set up, all being played.. (Except the SX64, which was sad because I used to have one.. :-) But after a quick round, I head to the tables with LOTS of games.. First table.. Good selection.. O2 and 7800 games... Quick browse, no games from my list tho.. hmmm.. Shoot over to the other pretty good size table..

 

I'm not very good at asserting myself, so I waste alot of time trying to look like I need help.. :-) Finally get around to asking some questions..

Didn't see anything from my list. Holding Klax in my hand.. Get the price for that.. But there's a small pile.. so I put it back and go back to the first table.

 

OK, they have Quest for the Rings for the O2 (which should have been on my list), but it's missing the Overlay... Hmmm.. I'll wait on that one too.. Then I start going thru the 7800 games... I get a bunch.. Even Double Dragon and Water Ski.. Get a few in the boxes, and a few shrinkwrapped.. I feel bad about those, because I'm just going to open them... But oh well... Then I get a bunch of 02 games.. Spent enough to get a little discount.. :-)

 

Then I go back to the other table. There's a few really cheap O2 games.. I pick em up.. Then at a close table, I get some more boxed 7800 games.. And as I'm looking thru a bin.. Some Adam tapes in cases.. Well, I could use those, if just as blanks... OK..

looking... looking.. FINALLY!! A loose (no tape case) Buck Rogers!! I have 2 cases at home, so that's no problem!!

 

OK, I have 2 bags of stuff.. Decent haul.. Didn't get Klax.. Should have probably, but it would have been the most expensive single purchase.. Was going more for quantity.... Then I go looking around..

 

They had a Laser projector on the wall earlier playing a game (Vectrex?? LaserMame???) It was off now... They had the Vectrex in a TV chassis.. Looked great. They had a regular Vectrex.. :-) (I have a Vectrex, so I noticed those first.. :-)

 

I actually saw an Amiga CD32.. I had the 500 and 1200 growing up, but never saw the CD32.. Looked great!!!!

They had a laserdisc player/sega thing that looked awesome!!! Never heard of that before....

 

But I was still down (Nothing to do with the expo), and it had been 2 hours and I was hungry too... So I took off...

 

All in all, attitude aside, it looked pretty good... It was smallish, but I expected that.. I think I was expecting more table actually plalying games with different systems..

 

There was an XBox.. Why??? Waste of a monitor in my opinion.. :-)

 

I didn't notice any Playstation stuff, thank goodness.. :-)

 

Lynx cartridges look different than I expected.. :-) Thinner..

 

OK, LONG DRIVE HOME..

 

Get home.. Start checking games... All the O2 games work, except for Football. Oh well...

(I think Computer Intro works, but I just don't know how to use it.. :-)

 

Start checking 7800 games... DK music is kind of annoying.. :-) Dr. J toasted Larry Bird in one-on-one, but he always did when I had that for my C64 when I was young.. :^> Take the games out of the boxes.. Look nice..

 

Still have 3 games in boxes in shrinkwrap... Will open those tonight..

 

All in all, pretty good. If it wasn't so far away, I might have been able to be better motivated and enjoyed it even more...

 

Now, I'm seriously off to collecting 7800 games.. I have 23 of them so far.. (27 O2 games, for those keeping score, and 3 Colecovision (I really got that for the Adam computer. :-)

 

Still thinking about a decent case/holder for the carts. I just want something that holds the carts, no boxes. (I'll put those in a closet or something...)

 

No, I'm not heading back up (8 hours round trip) to play Atari games tomorrow.. Just can't do that... Actually, considering the cost of gas, the money I saved in carts there (over EBay and shipping) might not actually have been that much.. Luckily my car gets decent mileage....

 

desiv

 

p.s. As a side note, I sent someone from this board 2 spare 7800 games I had. I spent $1.5x on shipping...

 

How come it costs SOO MUCH more when someone from ebay send me something??? (I know the answer, just sad...)

 

Off to dinner, then unwrapping 3 games... (Jinks, RSBaseball, and some football game)

[tyranthraxus]

Nice write up. Now I really wish I had gone I figured I was about

3 hours from Seattle but had a fair bit to do in the morning before leaving

so I didn't get to the border until about 11 when I came face to face with

a monster border crossing line up! I turned back there since I had to back

in town by 5:30 to pick up some friend for an event we were going to

later that night. If only I had manged my time better I could have

gone!

 

I was really hoping to get a 5200 and pick up a few more 7800 and CV

titles.

 

John

[chrisbid]

even if its a small show, its really nice to chat with other people into old games in real life. The people i talk to that play games dont really play classic systems too much, to most of them, the NES is "old-skool". The 2001 Cinciclassic was a very small show, but i wholly enjoyed the day. The 2002 show was a bit of a shock to me, as there were a lot more people there. Yes, it was placed in a higher traffic area of the mall than the previous year (the 2001 show was in a storefront that was in an area of the mall that was nearly completely abandoned).

[GrizzLee]

I'm not sure how or why NWCGE is discussed in the 7800 forum, but I'll reply here, since I was one of the organizers.

 

Now, here's what my day was like.. Knowing the Expo started at 10:00, I decided to leave the house by 6am.. Yes, I'm 4 hours away.. So I wake up.. and go back to sleep.. Leave the house by 8:20..  

 

                     Get there about 12:30... Start looking around..

 

Did you come from Canada? We had quit a few folks from Vancouver come (Including Christopher Tumber) and I've heard the border crossing into the US is very long these days.

 

 

Then I go back to the other table. There's a few really cheap O2 games.. I pick em up.. Then at a close table, I get some more boxed 7800 games.. And as I'm looking thru a bin.. Some Adam tapes in cases..

Well, I could use those, if just as blanks... OK..  

looking... looking.. FINALLY!! A loose (no tape case) Buck Rogers!! I have 2 cases at home, so that's no problem!!  

 

OK, I have 2 bags of stuff.. Decent haul.. Didn't get Klax.. Should have probably, but it would have been the most expensive single purchase.. Was going more for quantity.... Then I go looking around..

 

I remember you.... I sold you the Adam Cassette tapes. And yes, you should have picked up Klax :-) I still have a few left, just let me know.

 

They had a Laser projector on the wall earlier playing a game (Vectrex?? LaserMame???) It was off now...

                        They had the Vectrex in a TV chassis.. Looked great. They had a regular Vectrex..  (I have a Vectrex, so

                        I noticed those first..  

 

                        I actually saw an Amiga CD32.. I had the 500 and 1200 growing up, but never saw the CD32.. Looked

                        great!!!!  

                        They had a laserdisc player/sega thing that looked awesome!!! Never heard of that before....  

 

                        There was an XBox.. Why??? Waste of a monitor in my opinion..  

 

The laser projection system was Space Wars. A very awesome setup using lasers, computers and a mirror. A very expensive setup. I think he had something break and had to leave early.

 

The Vectrex TV is something else. One of the locals here took a classic TV and retro-fit it to display vector graphics. He took the vectrex and put is all inside. Imagine playing a vectrex on a 19-20" screen.

 

The laser disc was the Pioneer LaserActive system. I am still looking for one of these myself.

 

Regarding the XBOX... well did you notice is was green and signed by "the man" himself, Mr Bill. There were alot of M$ folks there, they appreciated it. I don't think the folks from Nintendo liked it much tho

 

We had 140 people show up to the meet throughout the day( About the same as last year) from Oregon, Canada, Utah, Idaho and Texas. Yes, Paul Slocum came to the show as did Chris Tumber.

 

There was more to the weekend than the NWCGE meet. Folks that went downtown Seattle were treated to the obsolete media festival, featuring performances by Paul Slocum with his SynthCart and Dot matrix synthysizer. The Annual Atari 2600 Championship was held there yesterday and, as usual, was a blast. John Saeger (z26 author) came by for all the events , and as usual, was looking for freebies. I guess that's what I get for being a nice guy to him all these years. It is now a pavlovian reponse for him

 

As usual, I drank too much beer, ate too much food, stayed up way too late, spent way too much money and now am behind. Look to http://NWCGE.org for re-cap of the weekend in the coming days.

 

If you plan to visit the PacNW, make it a point to come by. My door is always open.

 

-Lee

[desiv]

I'm not sure how or why NWCGE is discussed in the 7800 forum, but I'll reply here, since I was one of the organizers.

 

Funny, I thought the 7800 was a Classic Gaming System?? :-)

But since my post was more generic, maybe a more generic forum would have been better. But I don't read the generic forums.. :-)

 

 

Did you come from Canada? We had quit a few folks from Vancouver come (Including Christopher Tumber) and I've heard the border crossing into the US is very long these days.

 

Nope, Salem, Oregon...

 

I remember you.... I sold you the Adam Cassette tapes. And yes, you should have picked up Klax :-) I still have a few left, just let me know.

 

Thinking hard about it.. Once I get the quote on painting my house.. :-)

 

The laser projection system was Space Wars. A very awesome setup using lasers, computers and a mirror. A very expensive setup. I think he had something break and had to leave early.

 

Yeah, when I got back to look at it, it was off. Didn't get to play it.. :-(

 

Regarding the XBOX... well did you notice is was green and signed by "the man" himself, Mr Bill. There were alot of M$ folks there, they appreciated it. I don't think the folks from Nintendo liked it much tho  

 

I stand by my Anti-MS stance! :-) Unless they gave you things?? :-)

 

We had 140 people show up to the meet throughout the day( About the same as last year)  from Oregon, Canada, Utah, Idaho and Texas. Yes, Paul Slocum came to the show as did Chris Tumber.

 

Hmmm.. Again, I was distracted.. But.. Maybe name tags or name signs would have been good.. I've bought stuff from Chris! Would have liked to say HI in person.. I probably walked by him several times..

 

And others I'm sure...

 

Sounds like a good showing tho... I'll keep it on the list for next year.. When, hopefully, I'm less distracted by life...

 

Thanx, desiv

[GrizzLee]

I stand by my Anti-MS stance!  Unless they gave you things??  

Quote:

..... Yes, Paul Slocum came to the show as did Chris Tumber.  

 

Hmmm.. Again, I was distracted.. But.. Maybe name tags or name signs would have been good.. I've bought stuff from Chris! Would have liked to say HI in person.. I probably walked by him several times..  

 

And others I'm sure...  

 

Sounds like a good showing tho... I'll keep it on the list for next year.. When, hopefully, I'm less distracted by life...  

 

Regarding M$... I get extreme pleasure knowing the M$ loses $100 for every XBOX they sell In any event, I think you are a minority here. Most folks really like seeing the limted edition XBOX. I wish I had one. It will be there next year and probably at CGE as well.

 

The name tags is a good idea. Something we had discussed. However, some of the organizers don't like being so formal. We will have to bring it up again. BTW: I was wearing a name tag as was a few others.

 

 

I hope that things go well for you. Get your house painted and then, if you want, feel free to come and help paint mine. There's a free Klax in it for you

 

See you next year,

-Lee

[NE146]

Hey desiv, Maybe I should've brought my 'tricked-out' Xbox outfitted with every single Colecovision, Atari 2600 + Homebrews/hacks, Sega Master System, most old-school arcade (via Mame), all SNES, all TG-16, and Genesis games installed on it.. (and so much more) and then you might've seen it's value for some classic console gaming goodness

 

..but with all those MS people there, I didn't think it would've been wise

[tyranthraxus]

Interesting so the Xbox can be modded to use cdrs and install/play non

xbox software? Since they are just stripped down computer I knew it

has awesome potention for customizing but I didn't know it was already

being done.

 

John

[GrizzLee]

Interesting so the Xbox can be modded to use cdrs and install/play non xbox software? Since they are just stripped down computer I knew it has awesome potention for customizing but I didn't know it was already being done.

 

You'd be surprised at what is floating around Redmond. Some of the folks at M$ are very brilliant. XBOXs running Linux (blue screen X upon start up). Playing the entire TG16 library on the XBOX is truly amazing. The controls are perfect. Modded XBOXs aren't without problems though. For starters, you can't go on-line (XBOX live that is) and I've seen 3 XBOXs destroyed doing the mod.

 

One of the guys around Redmond :wink: designed a Gameboy Advance multicart that can play the library of NES games in emulation (screw that bulky e-card reader thing-a-ma-bob). I forgot to bring that to the show for discreet viewing. It is pretty cool. Also for trade if any oneis interested.

 

In any event, I hope you can make it to next years show.

 

Pictures of this years event can be found at: http://www.cyberroach.com/cyromag/15/default.htm

 

See you next year,

-Lee