25 replies to this topic

[Albert]

/images/news/haag2008.jpgThe Houston Area Arcade Group (HAAG) is holding their annual arcade expo on November 7th and 8th at the Crowne Plaza Houston Reliant Park hotel. Admission is $25 for a weekend pass or $15 for a single day, which gets you access to over 100 arcade games and pinball machines all set to free play! You can also participate in arcade and pinball tournaments, win door prizes, try your luck at a game raffle, and partake in the full bar. There aren't many opportunities to enjoy large collections of classic arcade games, so if you are in the Houston area (or can get there!), you should be at this expo! AtariAge is sponsoring the event, and we'll have a slew of classic gaming systems (Atari 2600, 5200, ColecoVision, Intellivision, etc.) setup for play! For more information, please visit ArcadeCenter.com.

[AtariLeaf]

Albert, on Wed Oct 8, 2008 6:57 PM, said:

The Houston Area Arcade Group (HAAG) is holding their annual arcade expo on November 7th and 8th at the Crowne Plaza Houston Reliant Park hotel.  Admission is $25 for a weekend pass or $15 for a single day, which gets you access to over 100 arcade games and pinball machines all set to free play! You can also participate in arcade and pinball tournaments, win door prizes, try your luck at a game raffle, and partake in the full bar. There aren't many opportunities to enjoy large collections of classic arcade games, so if you are in the Houston area (or can get there!), you should be at this expo! AtariAge is sponsoring the event, and we'll have a slew of classic gaming systems (Atari 2600, 5200, ColecoVision, Intellivision, etc.) setup for play!  For more information, please visit ArcadeCenter.com.

Wish I could go. Sounds like a lot of fun. Take a lot of pictures and post them for us unlucky ones ok Albert.  

[SpiceWare]

Cool!  I'm planning to be there on Saturday

[Albert]

SpiceWare, on Thu Oct 9, 2008 6:30 PM, said:

Cool!  I'm planning to be there on Saturday

Great!  I'll see you there.  

..Al

[ckrtech]

I'll be there this weekend.

[Albert]

ckrtech, on Mon Nov 3, 2008 11:59 AM, said:

I'll be there this weekend.

I'm looking forward to it!  I have a lot of work to do in advance of Friday.  Need to test all the systems I'm bringing and make sure I have a decent assortment of games for each.  I'll be there relatively early on Friday to setup the console games and hang an AtariAge banner.  Then I'll lose myself in all the arcade games!  

Here's the latest list of games that will be there:

http://arcadecenter.com/2008games.htm

Up to 115 games, although that includes the console games as well.  

..Al

[jeremiahjt]

I won tickets to the renaissance festival there in Plantersville, north of Houston and I think my wife wants to go this weekend.  I've never been to either, but if there is some way to do both in one day I think I'll try it.  I'm sure I'd enjoy the expo more while I know my wife would enjoy the festival more.  Since we already have the festival tickets that takes priority, but I'll try my best to do both.  If anybody has been to both and thinks it's possible to do both in the same day let me know.

[SpiceWare]

Had fun!  Introduced Al and Mary (hope I remembered her name correctly) to Hobbit Cafe for dinner.

I wouldn't recommend doing both on the same day.  You can do Ren Fest on Sunday though

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Edited by SpiceWare, Sat Nov 8, 2008 9:18 PM.

[RockLobster]

That was definitely some great fun.  These events seem to be better organized every year!  Kudos to the folks at HAAG for their hard work!  Here are some media of it.

Video:



Photos:
http://76.30.157.71:.../haag-expo-2008

Edited by RockLobster, Sun Nov 9, 2008 11:25 AM.

[SpiceWare]

RockLobster, on Sun Nov 9, 2008 1:26 AM, said:

Video:

I think that's me at 4:16 playing Rally X.

[Nathan Strum]

SpiceWare, on Sat Nov 8, 2008 7:12 PM, said:

Had fun!  Introduced Al and Mary (hope I remembered her name correctly) to Hobbit Cafe for dinner.

I wouldn't recommend doing both on the same day.  You can do Ren Fest on Sunday though

Isn't it a little hypocritical of Stormtroopers to be playing Star Wars? Or do they hold a secret resentment for the evil Empire that they serve?

[ckrtech]

Well, I really had a blast this weekend. This was my third consecutive HAE, and it gets better every year. An old college friend of mine flew in from CA, and we hit the place on Friday.

One thing I didn't really think much about until getting there and experiencing it was the home console section. This was a great idea. There were games that I have never owned or played that I instantly wanted to pick up. Just standing there talking to people was fun as each one of us shared gaming information for the Atari systems and only had to float over to a console and plug in a game to show it off. How often does that happen? Not nearly as often as it should.

I own a decent amount of consoles, but I am missing a few that I definitely need now. The Atari XE? Wow. I know there are ports of most of these games for other systems, but I still feel like I need an actual XE. My first game of Archon on that was awesome. I saw a few things I need for the 2600, and perhaps I need to go ahead and add a 7800. Seeing a CD-I in person was also educational.

Looks like I need to do some more research on some of these consoles I missed out on - find out the must buys and everything.

Playing games at the Houston Arcade Expo is always fun, but having a separate section to sit down and play the old console games where you could visit about them with other people was also quite awesome.

[SpiceWare]

Nathan Strum, on Sun Nov 9, 2008 4:28 PM, said:

Isn't it a little hypocritical of Stormtroopers to be playing Star Wars? Or do they hold a secret resentment for the evil Empire that they serve?

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[RockLobster]

ckrtech, on Sun Nov 9, 2008 5:56 PM, said:

One thing I didn't really think much about until getting there and experiencing it was the home console section. This was a great idea. There were games that I have never owned or played that I instantly wanted to pick up. Just standing there talking to people was fun as each one of us shared gaming information for the Atari systems and only had to float over to a console and plug in a game to show it off. How often does that happen? Not nearly as often as it should.

I couldn't agree more.  Having the consoles there reminded me that emulation doesn't really deliver the same feel as sitting in front of a blurry TV with the period controls.  I hope Keith and gang expand this section in 2009.  

I didn't even think about archon!!!   I could sit there playing archon 2 the entire day.  I don't like archon 1 as much since folks thend to not get off their black / white squares.

[rexreed]

RockLobster, on Sun Nov 9, 2008 9:39 PM, said:

ckrtech, on Sun Nov 9, 2008 5:56 PM, said:

One thing I didn't really think much about until getting there and experiencing it was the home console section. This was a great idea. There were games that I have never owned or played that I instantly wanted to pick up. Just standing there talking to people was fun as each one of us shared gaming information for the Atari systems and only had to float over to a console and plug in a game to show it off. How often does that happen? Not nearly as often as it should.

I couldn't agree more.  Having the consoles there reminded me that emulation doesn't really deliver the same feel as sitting in front of a blurry TV with the period controls.  I hope Keith and gang expand this section in 2009.  

I didn't even think about archon!!!   I could sit there playing archon 2 the entire day.  I don't like archon 1 as much since folks thend to not get off their black / white squares.

Fuzzy TV?  Not at Arcade Expo.  Albert brought units modded with composite outputs- it was the clearest I've ever seen.

[Albert]

rexreed, on Sun Nov 9, 2008 10:51 PM, said:

Fuzzy TV?  Not at Arcade Expo.  Albert brought units modded with composite outputs- it was the clearest I've ever seen.

Most of the units I brought were modified, although I experienced various problems hooking up systems to the televisions I brought as well as those others brought. It was somewhat chaotic getting everything up and running, and then keeping everything running during the show!  Some of them were hooked up via RF outputs (Fairchild F, Odyssey 2, Intellivision, two of the 2600 systems) and for the most part even those looked good via the fleet of coaxial to RCA adapters I had on hand.  

I just uploaded a bunch of pictures to Flickr.  Enjoy!



..Al

[Albert]

RockLobster, on Sun Nov 9, 2008 3:26 AM, said:

That was definitely some great fun.  These events seem to be better organized every year!  Kudos to the folks at HAAG for their hard work!  Here are some media of it.

Great video and wonderful pictures, thanks for sharing them!  

..Al

[Albert]

SpiceWare, on Sat Nov 8, 2008 11:12 PM, said:

Had fun!  Introduced Al and Mary (hope I remembered her name correctly) to Hobbit Cafe for dinner.

Great seeing you at the show and thanks for your recommendation of "Hobbit Cafe" for dinner.  Definitely will make it a point of going there again next year, assuming the expo is at the same location.  

..Al

[RockLobster]

Albert, on Mon Nov 10, 2008 4:40 PM, said:

SpiceWare, on Sat Nov 8, 2008 11:12 PM, said:

Had fun!  Introduced Al and Mary (hope I remembered her name correctly) to Hobbit Cafe for dinner.

Great seeing you at the show and thanks for your recommendation of "Hobbit Cafe" for dinner.  Definitely will make it a point of going there again next year, assuming the expo is at the same location.  

..Al

What part of the country are you from?  There are lots of good places to eat in Houston (unfortunately for my pant size)

[iwan-iwanowitsch-goratschin]

Wow, even the emperor sent a delegation of the 501st!

[Prodos8]

I regret not going.  It's only about a four hour drive for me.  Of course I'd probably opted to spend the night as to spend two days there.

I can't believe the Hobbit Cafe is still around, my mom used to drag me there to eat when I was a youngin.   I think it was new then.

[mechanicoid]

I was there on the second day and played the heck out of Major Havoc.  Made me wish i had 4 grand to burn.  I finally got to play Rescue on Fractalus, which i don't yet own go figure.  Too bad this H.A.A.G. thing isn't twice or three times a year...

[SpiceWare]

Prodos8, on Tue Nov 11, 2008 3:54 AM, said:

I can't believe the Hobbit Cafe is still around, my mom used to drag me there to eat when I was a youngin.   I think it was new then.

Yep, it's still around, though it may not be as you remember it because they relocated to Richmond at some point.

[ckrtech]

Is anyone in Houston interested in having some sort of get together where we trade some games? I never really thought about it until talking to some of you at the Arcade Expo while standing/sitting in front of the game consoles.

[mechanicoid]

ckrtech, on Tue Nov 11, 2008 7:00 PM, said:

Is anyone in Houston interested in having some sort of get together where we trade some games? I never really thought about it until talking to some of you at the Arcade Expo while standing/sitting in front of the game consoles.

that'd be cool.  there's plenty i'm looking for, for all my machines.