atwwong Posted October 23, 2006 Share Posted October 23, 2006 I know this would likely never happen but it would be cool to see an event like this in Toronto some time. Cheers!! Or Vancouver! Don't forget the West Coast! Atari used to be out here! Okay, it was California, but still... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gateway Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 Glad to hear about Atari, Inc. 's involvement in the vgXpo and potential future of homebrews, etc. Good luck with the show, everybody! Wish I could be there to meet some of you in person again. My last time in Philly was PhillyClassic 5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ATARIPITBULL Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 Question, are there going to be any new Atari 2600 Homebrews, Hacks or Reproductions that are only going to be available at the Expo? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted October 27, 2006 Author Share Posted October 27, 2006 Question, are there going to be any new Atari 2600 Homebrews, Hacks or Reproductions that are only going to be available at the Expo? Yes, Zach Matley's "Four-Play" is being released at the show. Didn't have time to take pictures before the event, but it'll go up in the store on or before December 1st (along with some other games if all goes as planned!) I wasn't really expecting to attend VGXPO this year because I am moving soon, so I didn't have a lot of time to prepare for this event. Otherwise I might have tried to have a few more games ready for the show. However, there have been many new homebrew releases in the last few months (AStar, Rainbow Invaders, A-VCS-tec Challenge, Conquest of Mars, Lady Bug, Wolfenstein VCS: The Next Mission) and others that were released after last year's Philly VGXPO, so those will be new to some people. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucket Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 I'll see if I can go. I'm compelled to say, "I'll be the one with my black Atari shirt", but I don't want to be THAT guy. So instead, I'll bring my dweeb posse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thelbane Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 I wasn't really expecting to attend VGXPO this year because I am moving soon[...] But I _just_ (we literally unloaded the truck today) moved to Austin. Tell me you're not leaving town! -Lee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zach Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 (edited) Yes, Zach Matley's "Four-Play" is being released at the show. Didn't have time to take pictures before the event, but it'll go up in the store on or before December 1st (along with some other games if all goes as planned!)l I haven't seen the carts yet, but you can see the label on the left. There's a higher resolution image in the homebrew forum. Edited October 28, 2006 by Zach Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stackhouse from Yankees Empire Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 Philadelphia? Oh man sorry but I cant go, in fact I had never gone to there or any good classic gaming con place at all ever cuase of no money. Oh well too bad. Someday. Damn. Too bad it's such a shitty day in upstate NY or else I'd make a trip down to check that shit out! [sarcasm] My girlfriend would LOVE that! [/sarcasm] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt Vendel Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 (edited) Hi All, Just got back, show was good. It was phenomenal to see everyone again - Albert Matt - Tempest Mike - Back in Time Cassidy and his wife Shawn and Ann (Big story - about the Radison due and it's mutant killer elevator - more on that soon!) Seeing Len Herman, David (PhillyClassic) Newman Jeff from Videotopia (who now has me addicted to Atari Assault and Quantum!!! - Thanks Jeff.) Bob - Pacmanplus (WOW!!!! Pac Man Collection ROCKS!!!) John - Champ Games - Conquest of Mars is even more incredible in person and we tested on Mike Stulir's cartridge mod'd Flashback 2. Show over all - It was HUGE, perhaps in many ways too big. Videotopia's arcade and Videogames.net gamestations area was incredible, hands down. The speaker stage and the game tournaments being next to one another - VERY BAD, couldn't hear the speakers over the insanity of the tournaments. The Vendor and exhibitor area - kinda disappointing - really not a big selection of stuff to shop for and/or check out and I commented to Ed Flemming that the high draped partitions made the area kind of maze-ish and also people couldn't see from one end of the vendor/marketplace to the other, so those all the way in the back - like Len Herman, well many people didn't know he was all the way back there and never went back there. Attendence? I couldn't really tell, it was the usual - Saturday being double with Sunday's attendence was. I'd take a stab and say maybe 1,000 people, maybe a little bit more - maybe 1,500, too hard to tell since there were a lot of area s and people were spread out. People seemed very interested and rather intrigued by Atari's presence at a user level event and I think this helped show people that Atari is backing up its statements that it does in fact want to work with and for the gamers and the community. Hopefully Albert and I will be able to elaborate more information in more detail in the coming weeks as we work closely with Atari on several avenue's Overall - like I said, it was GREAT seeing all friends and familiar and some not so familiar faces and screenames, I thought the show went over okay overall. Perhaps the show was too big, I have to really sitdown and think about it, but there was a chemistry, a something, missing from the show that I've seen and felt at past shows such as Phillyclassic and Vintage Computer Fest. Either way, I had a really great time and I hope others did too. Curt Edited October 30, 2006 by Curt Vendel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackwolf Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 Hey guys, I don't pimp my stuff here all that often, but I figured this would be of some interest to the community here. I do a gaming podcast (The Bobby Blackwolf Show on All Games Radio) and I try to cover the oldschool scene when I can around the more recent news, and I was at VGXPO broadcasting several events straight from the show floor. One of these events was the surprise ATARI keynote discussing their embrace of this community. I have placed the entire keynote (about 20 minutes worth) with Chris Bergstresser, Ian Sharpe, and Alex "LX" Rudis unedited on my podcast feed as a part of my latest episode. It begins at 33 minutes in - the first 33 minutes is the trivia game show I hosted at VGXPO, the All Games Radio Trivia Challenge, which you are more than welcome to listen to and see if you can answer Classics for $400. The official episode page is here. The MP3 download is here. Thanks for letting me pimp my show here when it's relevant. It was great to see everyone again and to meet Curt in person - soon we'll have him on to talk about Awesome Arcades and the next Atari project! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted October 30, 2006 Author Share Posted October 30, 2006 Hey guys, I don't pimp my stuff here all that often, but I figured this would be of some interest to the community here. I do a gaming podcast (The Bobby Blackwolf Show on All Games Radio) and I try to cover the oldschool scene when I can around the more recent news, and I was at VGXPO broadcasting several events straight from the show floor. One of these events was the surprise ATARI keynote discussing their embrace of this community. I have placed the entire keynote (about 20 minutes worth) with Chris Bergstresser, Ian Sharpe, and Alex "LX" Rudis unedited on my podcast feed as a part of my latest episode. It begins at 33 minutes in - the first 33 minutes is the trivia game show I hosted at VGXPO, the All Games Radio Trivia Challenge, which you are more than welcome to listen to and see if you can answer Classics for $400. The official episode page is here. The MP3 download is here. Thanks for letting me pimp my show here when it's relevant. It was great to see everyone again and to meet Curt in person - soon we'll have him on to talk about Awesome Arcades and the next Atari project! This is great, thanks for recording and posting the talk with the Atari execs who were at the show! I didn't get an opportunity to attend this talk since I was at my booth, and didn't think anyone had recorded it. Look forward to listening to it! ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MegaData Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 This new direction will change the entire face of Atari's entire presence and dealing with the classic gaming community, and most specifically a very important and new way of EMBRACING independant developers and homebrewers. We won't need it soon but, would Atari help release the sources for the Atari Jaguar Developer Tools, so that they can be improved? It would also be cool to have the working model of "3D Jaz" which is just a demo. I'm missing the analog sample program "ANAJOY" and probably some other bits and pieces, if anyone has those. Developer tools were by Brainstorm so that is probably a long shot... but it may be more productive than individual developers asking for these things. I hope they consider talking to active developers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baker011 Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 I wish I could have gone but it seems my bosses did a fine job in the Podcast that was posted. I am the new Community Manager at Atari and guess I just want to further support what was said. Attitudes are changing at Atari now and we will be doing all that we can to help and support all of our community. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 I guess I should do my write up as I sit in the Philly airport waiting for my flight to leave... The show itself was a bit of a mixed bag. The arcade area was awesome! I don't think I've ever seen so many classic arcade machines in one area. The variety was excellent, with everything from space invaders clones to marble madness, to I, Robot. I think I spent the most time on either Black Widow or Major Havoc. They also had a Quantum machine there in absolute mint condition, which is something most people will never see. I even got to beat Space Harrier with the help of 150+ extra lives... The show area was nice and big, but the vendor variety was a bit disappointing. Atari Age/Atari Museum/AtariProtos.com had the big corner space as you come into the show. Al was on hand selling homebrews while Curt and I were displaying our various prototypes (I hope someone took pictures of my 'Wall o' Prototypes'). Also on the corner (on the opposite side) was Game Crazy with a big selection of neo-classical games, but I didn't spend much time at their booth because I need another Saturn or Genesis game like I need a hole in the head. Going around the horn you had J2 something or another games (sorry I can't remember the exact name) which had some nice items although I felt they were over priced. Next to them was Curt's Awesome Arcades booth where he had a PAM mini arcade machine on display which saw alot of use throughout the show. Next to that was Cassidy's booth were I spent most of my time hanging out watching Cassidy work his magic selling off his extra systems and games (woo hoo! Coleco Adam programming books!). Next to Cassidy was a really cool animation software booth showing off demos of cartoons created with the software. These things were amazing! They looked like professional Pixar animations. Whatever they were charging for that software it was worth it! Beyond the animation software booth was another vendor whos name I can't remember at the moment, but they were cool guys. Then there was Moby Games next to them who I think were selling some games. Then there were the Future Shock Creation guys who I never did quite figure out what the heck they were doing. As far as I can tell they were collecting money to make some movie in the future. Whatever... Then there was collectors cards and games where Mike was serving up some great deals (INXS and Marky Mark are finally mine!), and next to him was another guy selling games (I think I bought Mystic Defender from him). This was it for the first row, behind that was a second row which I really didn't see much but included a video game museum of some sort, an action figure booth, a slot machine/imports booth, and some other misc. booths. Although the vending was kind of a bust, it was a blast to see all my friends again. I think we had more fun playing with 'Magic Eight Light' then anything else at the show (I'll have to explain that one later). Saturday night we all went out to an Italian place (Maggianos or something like that) where even though we had reservations for 8:30 we didn't sit down to eat until about 9:30. On the not so fun side was Shaun getting his hand caught in an elevator door and possibly breaking a finger. It seems that the elevators at the hotel had no physical sensors in them to detect when something is caught in the door, only a light sensor at the bottom. The elevators were really scary as half of them didn't work and the other half probably haven't had maintenance done on them since PhillyClassic 3. The Saturday night 'misfits and rejects' party was one of the best times I've had in a long time time. Basically a bunch of us gathered in the back of the arcade behind some Atari System 1 machines and started a party. It was sort of like all the cool kids hanging out behind the school during classes, but with video game nerds instead. Later on a small group of us went to go track down and kill the guy with the microphone who kept annoying us with pointless announcements that no one could understand, but he must have been hiding too well so our angry mob returned to the shadowy corner empty handed. Sunday was really quiet, so I spent most of my time in the arcade. There were some LAN games going on and some tournaments, but I didn't pay much attention to those. I did however learn how to activate all the warps in Major Havoc, and a nifty little trick for getting 99 seconds in Marble Madness (which unfortunately requires access to the test button on the board to make it work). Sunday night Al, Shaun, Anna, Mike, and myself all went out to dinner a Chili's where they apparently don't believe in steak sauce. How we actually got some is another long story... One of my more interesting experiences this trip was getting through airport security with a suitcase crammed full of prototypes. Lets just say that they look REALLY suspicious on an airport x-ray machine. I had to spend about 20 min explaining what they were to the security guard ripping my carefully packed packages apart (no it's not a bomb, it's a Quadrun lab loaner...) Fun things I'll always remember about this trip ----------------------------------------------------- Magic Eight Light The Pickle Fairy "Can I borrow a Space Invaders cart?" "Does that steering wheel look loose to you?" The lengths one man will go for his steak sauce I'm sure I'm missing something so I'll have to update this post later. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zach Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 I wish I could have gone but it seems my bosses did a fine job in the Podcast that was posted. I am the new Community Manager at Atari and guess I just want to further support what was said. Attitudes are changing at Atari now and we will be doing all that we can to help and support all of our community. Nice to meet you. I look forward to hearing more about Atari's relationship with the classic gaming community. Imagine a one-player version of Combat... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trade-N-Games Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 Glad everyone had fun. As a vendor I could have brought thousands of games like I did in all the years past but the price was way to high for enough tables and the risk was to high if no one showed I would be busted like lst summer. Its like a catch 22 for the show. I feel like I can hang and amaze people at my selection and prices but I think I might have made a smart decision this fall by not going but I only hope I can attend next years show in Philly. Cant wait to see a few scores people got if any. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duke 4ever Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 You are forgetting the Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch for Sega Cd you bought! "I've completed my Marky Mark collection!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Helmet Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 Hey guys, I don't pimp my stuff here all that often, but I figured this would be of some interest to the community here. I do a gaming podcast (The Bobby Blackwolf Show on All Games Radio) and I try to cover the oldschool scene when I can around the more recent news, and I was at VGXPO broadcasting several events straight from the show floor. One of these events was the surprise ATARI keynote discussing their embrace of this community. I have placed the entire keynote (about 20 minutes worth) with Chris Bergstresser, Ian Sharpe, and Alex "LX" Rudis unedited on my podcast feed as a part of my latest episode. It begins at 33 minutes in - the first 33 minutes is the trivia game show I hosted at VGXPO, the All Games Radio Trivia Challenge, which you are more than welcome to listen to and see if you can answer Classics for $400. The official episode page is here. The MP3 download is here. Thanks for letting me pimp my show here when it's relevant. It was great to see everyone again and to meet Curt in person - soon we'll have him on to talk about Awesome Arcades and the next Atari project! Thanks for posting this. The keynote was interesting to hear. Seems like Atari, Inc. is serious about this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickybaby Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 Random thoughts from Wiff and Hubbs... - It was wonderful meeting good people and seeing old friends! - Alex is one amazing guy! - It's the "Attack of the killer elevators from a hotel called Radisson"! Stupid U-Shaped bone in the center of Shaun's hand... - ... Enjoying the simple pleasures in life - Pong rocks! - Back rubs and *Huggz* rule! - Mmmm steak sauce... - No Cassidy, we do NOT need any more stuff! Well, except maybe that laser disc player... - Awesome homebrews of course! - Would have been nice to have more vendors. - Sue has to be near Sainthood! Ed really isn't a bad guy! - Thankfully missing the "pickle fairy" but having other costumes swirling in my nightmares. That dragon was cute! - Some people were a little *too* happy to win their FB2's! It was an awesome giveaway! - The 2 really nice guys doing custom T-Shirts - Thank you for our early Anniversary present! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zach Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 (no it's not a bomb, it's a Quadrun lab loaner...) Good thing you didn't bring Canyon Bomber, or Kaboom! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 (no it's not a bomb, it's a Quadrun lab loaner...) Good thing you didn't bring Canyon Bomber, or Kaboom! I'm just glad they didn't look at that Fatal Run proto. That thing has so many wires running in the back of it, that it really DOES look like a bomb... Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mstulir Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 My take on the show...in no particular order: POSITIVES: 1. FRIENDS: The absolute best parts of these shows are seeing your friends, and meeting the people that frequent these forums. There are too many of those people to list here -- you know who you are. In my opinion, the thing I look forward to the most if the social aspect of being around people who share the same love/passion of gaming that I do. 2. VIDEOTOPIA: Once again, Jeff Anderson has outdone himself. He brought an incredible selection of coin-op games to play, and thanks to the low attendance at the show, getting on the arcade games never involved any waiting. 3. VIDEOGAME.NET CONSOLES: What Jeff did for the coin-op games, Videogame.net did for the consoles. Virtually every major console was represented. 4. ATARI: Having Atari make a presence at the event and listen to what the gamers had to say was a big step in the right direction. I know Curt Vendel & I had a blast in the Atari booth showing off the work of the Flashback 2 team, and with Atari there to see/hear all of the positive feedback, I am hopeful it will lead to bigger/better things for the classic gaming community. 5. ADULT BEVERAGES: The unofficial bar for vgXpo was stocked by the Nolen's and myself Saturday afternoon, and some well deserved (and overdue) consumption of alchohol took place in the back of the arcade Saturday night. 6. ATARIAGE: Al clearly set up the best booth of the show. 7. COMCAST: Not my favorite company in the world, but they supplied free Wi-Fi for the weekend so Al could keep his webcam running, and everyone in attendance could utilize the Internet. NEGATIVES: 1. OBNOXIOUS PEOPLE ON THE P.A. SYSTEM: I swear to god I was ready to hurt someone. The quantity of people allowed to SCREAM AND YELL through the P.A. system was just ugly. I had a throbbing headache for two days because of the vgXpo Staff and the asshats from GameCrazy who could not shut the hell up. Cassidy, Al, Matt, and a few others witnessed me verbally assaulting the 17 year old GameCrazy punk on Sunday when I could not take it anymore. Matt made is own attempt Saturday night. 2. COSPLAY: 400 pound adults wearing coke-bottle glasses & dressed as Jedi's do not impress me. Every time I feel like a geek/nerd about my gaming obsession, I look at these losers and feel much better about myself. When the announcement of the Cosplay finals was made Sunday afternoon, there was a massive dork stampede through the room. PLEASE, eliminate the cosplay NONSENSE in future events....unless Triumph The Insult Comic Dog will be there to assist in the humiliation of these people. 3. ATTENDANCE: I'd guess less than 1,500 people in attendance. It makes it a lot easier to get on the game stations with a smaller crowd, but this show should have been bigger and better. 4. MARKETING/PROMOTION: I live here in Philly, and I saw absolutely ZERO in the way of marketing. If the people behind this show can't get the word out locally, they will never build this into the event they dream of. 5. MICROSOFT: Rumor has it that the Microsoft showed up and did their thing FRIDAY before the majority of people got there to set up. 6. FOCUS: This show has absolutely ZERO focus. America's Videogame Expo had entirely too much stuff going on that had nothing to go with videogames. Slot machines, Pokemon trading cards, Cosplay, etc. What was that group with the big TV and the constantly running trailers for crappy amatuer movies all about? 7. HOTEL/LODGING: See the elevator accident mentioned earlier in the thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 COSPLAY Oh dear lord, I had forgotten about that. Now to be fair, the video game Cosplay people were ok I guess, but the anime stuff was just weird (there was one guy dressed up like the ninja teacher from Naruto which looked really nice though). There was also some anime thing going on in another part of the hotel so every time I had to run between the hotels I ran into them. Let's just say that 5 people weighing an average of 250 pounds each dressed up like Sailor Moon was more than I wanted to see. Also the strange guy dressed up like a pirate who kept offering to paddle me got more than a little uncomfortable... At least the Cosplay people gave us a cheap laugh... Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassidy Nolen Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 Suppose my thoughts should be in order.... Magic 8 light was great. There was a light that clearly needed some work. It just so happened that my table was right underneath. We managed to live with it for a few hours on Friday before I noted that it always seemed to go out at the most inopportune times. It seemed to have a decision making ability. Bizarre and amusing. We would ask the light questions and interperate the response. I will say it was very subjective. Until you have seen MStuiler, co-designer of the FB2 carrying a bag of pickles, you ain't seen nothing. The most forlorn look of sadness as he was unable to distribute his briney goodness to attendees and vendors on the floor. I simply fired him. Enough said. No pickle distribution I was associated with would be of such poor caliber. One time, a fella won a Flashback 2. Curt says (could have been Stuiler) 'hey, that guy over there has an actual Atari for sale'. Yeah, I was that guy. Ended up, after almost a half hour showing him the system, he really wanted a Space Invaders cart. Tempest literally runs over to Mike, takes the cart out of the port modded FB and throws it at me. Amazing. Deal made ala Tempest and his ill-gotten booty. The arcade party after hours was great. It was like sneaking out after hours in High School. Amazing fun. Kids, don't try this at home. We are trained geek professionals. Having a great time when you should not is always good stuff. Dinner was a bit of a disappointment given that Karate-Action Z-28 doll was not in attendance. Seriously, dude, who gets beat by an elevator? Thats just not right. PacManPlus hooked me up with the greatest take from the show. I got to see/play/own one of his ultra-hot Pac Man compilation carts for the 7800. It seriously is the most amazing version of the game I have EVER seen on a console; new or old. Absolutely spot-on. I got to hang some with him and some over very cool cats this weekend. Mad props to all who came. I sold out of all of my spare everything. Even managed to sell off/give away all my project cases. I really only have about 50 extra carts and 1 or 2 spare systems. Mind you, I started 2006 with near 50 systems and probably 3-400 carts in my crawlspace. VERY nice. Now I can get at Christmas decorations and not curse the entire time. I enjoyed hanging with all of the AA folks. As always, amazing times were had. Jeff Anderson from Videotopia is a long time friend from years ago. Actually one of the main reasons I got big into games was Jeff. Got to hang with him some too. Great guy, if you ever meet him I know you'll agree. He IS classic gaming. I can't think of any other single person who has the effect of promoting classic gaming more than he does. Al, ok, I know. Ok, so Al and this guy. How's that? More soon. Must go unpack. Very sleepy today after a 4 hour drive in traffic. That sucked. 95 was a mess. Cassidy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbroddy Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 Positives Many good games to purchase from vendors Excellent Arcade, many enjoyable games to play Testing out a few prototypes (Xevious was enjoyable and fun, must have it!) Made sone good trade (Thanks for Gravitar, Cassidy) First time playing Dance Dance Revolution, Easy mode seemed hard during the first few tries Negatives Terrible hotel service-room didn't have two beds as stated in reservation, mom and I were seriously pissed off, they gave us smoking room with two beds Very Noisy neighbors at 12:30-2:00 am-There were a few parties on our floor during both early mornings! Ugh! It was extremely windy outside when getting my games to trade. Having my shorts on was a mistake, I was frozen when I came back into the hotel! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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