What's the farthest you've traveled for video games?

[XxHennersXx]

Like the topic says, what's the farthest you've traveled for the sake of video games?

Either to a tournament, conventions, or to pick something up...

http://xxhennersxx.livejournal.com/52668.html

Last weekend my friend and I drove 740 miles round way to pick up an arcade machine.

[FAMOUS]

Drove from scottsdale to peoria to pick up a second copy of sonic, around 45 miles...

[Damaniel]

Last year I drove about 360 miles round trip (Portland to Seattle) just to go to Pink Godzilla. The drive took a lot longer than the total amount of time I spent in town. ;)

Other than that, I tend to stick pretty close to town, but a few of my regular game stores are more than 30 miles away. I haven't been to CGE yet, but if I ever make it one of these years then that will probably end up being my longest video-game related trip.

[Lady Jaye]

Gone to San Francisco 2 years ago to go to CGE. And on this, I think that Mayhem is probably the DP regular who's travelled the farthest for videogames... ;)

[schnuth]

I suppose it was my trip to Japan. Granted buying video games wasn't the only thing I wanted to do while I was there, but it was a high priority. :love:

Aaron

[Steve W]

I've made the drive from Dallas, TX to Tulsa, OK for the Oklahoma Videogame Expo, which is about a four and a half hour drive each way.

I was bored one weekend, so I drove to Shreveport, LA on a whim just to hit a few flea markets and thrift stores along the way. All I ended up with at the end of the day were a couple Intellivision games and a couple Colecovision titles.

Earlier in the year, I drove all across Dallas hitting the different locations of Fry's Electronics to pick up dirt cheap Xbox games. Almost an hour's drive just to get to the farthest location.

[retrogamer]

Japan, to get a Wii.

[Tommy]

I drove 30 miles each way to pick up a copy of Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo for an astonishing 2 bucks off craigslist. Got home and popped it in my PS2 slim and it didn't work. Got it polished and still to no avail. Came on here that night and told you all of my dilemma and with the gaming geniuses found out it wasn't compatible. Works like a charm :rocker:

[CosmicMonkey]

From my house to the South coast and back again in my mate's van. Went to pick up my Naomi Universal cabinet.

Got lost on the way back. Ended up stopping off in a lay-by that'd been commandeered by by a big family of Travelers. Had a smoke and a cup of tea with biccies, and got directions to get us back on our way.

[Flack]

If we're counting shows, I just drove 2,200 miles round trip to attend CGE.

Specifically for a single game, I drove to Austin, TX and back (810 miles round trip) to pick up my Heavy Barrel cabinet. I've also driven to Dallas and Hutchinson, KS (500 and 600 miles round trip, roughly) to pick up cabinets.

[norkusa]

Drove 55 miles to play DDR once. There were no places in my area that had a machine so I drove to the closest one which was in Kalamazoo. Normally I wouldn't do something like that but I've never played the arcade version before that point so it was a big deal to me at the time

[dgordon86]

on occasion I walked 10 miles or so (one way) to play DDR...

then walked back home. heh.

[Pantechnicon]

In general whenever I travel I always try and visit local game shops, but this is usually secondary to a main purpose of the trip such as vacation or business. So if we're talking travel just for games..

- 2100 round trip miles flying to CGE2K4.

- 1300 miles round trip driving for OVGE 2006.

- A very close third is 1250 miles round trip driving for CGE in Las Vegas (`99, `00, `01, `02, `07).

- Without a collector show involved, the longest I've driven for just games is around 165 miles round trip, from the small Nebraska town in which my in-laws reside to Omaha ("Gotta Get To Gamerz!").

And one of these days I'm contemplating a road trip to Roswell, NM (400 miles round trip) where I passed by some promising looking game shops on my way back from Carlsbad Caverns.

[diskoboy]

As of now, the farthest I've gone is down to Atlanta to pick up my Galaga machine.

But that will soon change when I get off my ass, and go get my stuff out of storage in Dallas. And I've been procrastinating because there are people in Dallas I'd rather not see.

[Steven]

About 62 miles. But if you want to count the trip BACK home, which I guess makes a ton of sense, 124 miles. 700+ though is damn hardcore.

[MasterJSP]

Back in 2002 I once went to Brighton, MI from St. Louis, MO for a DDR tournament.

[ubersaurus]

For tournaments the furthest I've gone is Detroit to Toronto for Capcom vs SNK 2.

But to buy, one could argue that I went from Detroit to Osaka with the express intent to buy video games. I had no other reasons to go to Osaka on my trip other than to shop :P

[cyberfluxor]

Two months ago I wondered to the Outter Banks, NC to see if there was anything interesting down there. It's a 63 mile drive to Nags Head from my house so the round trip was 126 miles, maybe a bit more because we ventured a bit further. We stopped at 6 places:
3 thrift stores
1 game store
2 music shops
Finds result: North Carolina BBQ, fudge and soda.
Yup! We drove 126+ miles to dig around the place for 4 hours and find nothing so to not end the day on a low note we stopped at a good BBQ joint and picked up some fudge across the street. The soda was from Brew-Thru, which is the "famous" drive-through sudds store.

Now, the game store we stopped at was one I've been wanting to visit since earlier this spring when some other DP members discussed it (which the name escapes me right now). They were supposed to carry a wide range of games but I guess the NES was the oldest they could get. They had a very weak selection across the store and most games were over priced beyond even Game Stop. I don't know what their deal was but it appeared they wanted to make crazy money off tourist passing by for some video games. The thing that got me though was upon asking for Atari games I got this funny look from them like I was crazy to ask for old games their site advertise they sell if they're in stock. It doesn't suprise me too much because the employees looks like local surfers working a simple job there.



Now that was the farthest I've gone to hunt for some games. The most distance I've traveled with games in mind is to Otakon in Baltimore, MD, which I've gone to twice and is about 250 miles each way. I always peek into their gamers room for imports but it's always 3x more expensive than the highest eBay prices so it's always a letdown. Sometimes though you'll stumble across decent import games for $15-30 and have fallen into that "okay to over-paying" mood before.

[TurboGenesis]

The furthest I traveled with main intent to buy video games is from Detroit to Milwaukee for the Midwest Gaming Classic (2004,2006).

But while vacationing in Floridia, I did go shop for video games, and while visiting family in California, I also purchased video games.

[Jumpman Jr.]

Mapquest says I flew 2,500 miles (one way) to get to CGE in Vegas this past year. :)

[Tron 2.0]

Use to go to, Balitmore MD for genesis title heck i use to... go all over the state for video games.

These days though i stick to buying local for the current consoles.

Still that is about to change when i go to this convention.
http://www.toomanygames.com

I'm in MD so it will be a trip goinng up to reading pa for it.

[otaku]

Haven't made any special trips yet but have a few in mind: E3 as a writer for defunctgames soon. Next year hopefully. Japan (TGS) when I can afford it. And I was close to going to salt lake recently to get an MVS

[sirhansirhan]

I drove five or so hours from St. Louis to Tulsa for the OVGE 2005... and didn't buy anything.

[Ed Oscuro]

To Chicago, although I watched a baseball game there.

[The 1 2 P]

I drove 5 and a half hours(both ways) to go to the first Mag Fest and boy did it suck. Roanoke Virginia might as well not exist because it's so damn dead. Granted I got alot of cool magazines cheap but overall it was not worth the drive and thats why I never went back.

[Nicola]

Italy to Japan twice.
Italy to Las Vegas for CGE.

[MarkMan]

Drove from San Diego to Las Vegas(6 hour drive) just to play Tekken 5 in beta form at AMOA arcade show...

[DigitalSpace]

Seaside, OR, which is about 80 miles west of Portland, in the summer of 2004. Before going to the beach, I decided to check out the thrifts I saw along US 101 (and a rummage sale that was going on at a church). Unfortunately, the best things I saw were some overpriced 2600 commons and a boxed Sonic 2 for $5, so I didn't get any games.

[MachineGex]

To Chicago, although I watched a baseball game there.

That sounds far....

[Oobgarm]

1300 miles round-trip to go to the DP Store.

1300 miles round-trip to go to Joe's for NJ Classic XXX.

8800 miles round-trip to go to Kroogah's house to play games.

700 miles round-trip for a meet in Chicago.

500 miles round-trip to Toledo and Cedar Point three times so far, all meets.

Flew from Cincinnati to LA twice for E3, and once to San Jose for CGE.

[Barbarianoutkast85]

3 hours, I drove from Sunbury, PA to NYC, NY to go to Multimedia 1.0 so yea 3 hours driving one way.

[snes_collector]

I drove 5 and a half hours(both ways) to go to the first Mag Fest and boy did it suck. Roanoke Virginia might as well not exist because it's so damn dead. Granted I got alot of cool magazines cheap but overall it was not worth the drive and thats why I never went back.

Roanoke is a pretty cool place in my book, it's no Baltimore, but I like going up there. As a rather of fact I usually go up to Ronake just to hit up the gamestores, thrifts, and the mall a few times a year. And I'm two hours away.

[Niku-Sama]

i guess i could say japan last month, i didnt mainly go for games but it was definitly a big part because i wasnt leaving thr country with out a twin famicom.

i got one, and ~29,5oo¥ of other misclaneous games and such

[Andred]

My roommate and I drove 1200 miles each way from Indianapolis, IN to San Antonio, TX to attend a weekend-long LAN party. By the time we hit Arkansas we were popping pep pills and chugging red bull to stay awake. Never drive through Arkansas at 2 am... it's like being drowned in a small puddle... pure torture.

[Radiac]

1400 miles round trip for Outrun. It was non-stop save for the two hours that neither of us could drive because of fatigue. Next time I make a trip like that, (if the wife ever allows another one like that) we'll be getting a hotel.

[Steempy]

I've flown from Perth, Western Australia to:

- Philadelphia in 1997 for Electronicon
- London, England in 1999 for ECTS

Those weren't the sole purposes of the trips, but they were a big part of the timing and arrangements, so I declare they count!

[XianXi]

Between 14-18 miles. I'm on an island.

[PapaStu]

8800 miles round-trip to go to Kroogah's house to play games.




I could edit that, down to the 880 its suppose to be, but sending me a pic of my boyfriend Master Chief yesterday and that taunting message along with it has gotten me all flustered :P

Farthest i've gone for games has been 2200 miles a few times. I flew out to Chicago for Chitown Classic 2k4, then flew out again to Chicago in Jan of 05 for another get together (and picked up a small shiton of games from dave2236). I've also driven from California to Chicago (2125 miles on the road) and bought games along the way.

I've done other smatterings of trips but none of them were longer than 600 miles a direction (Driving to Oobgarms house for CinciClassic 06 off the top of my head), so they don't compete as well as those really long ones.

[walrusmonger]

I did about a 6000 mile round trip (nyc to la) to go to E3 a few years ago.

[Dave Farquhar]

I drove to a powdunk town 45 miles away to get some Playstation games, only to find the two I wanted the most out of the stash were missing disc 1. I wasn't happy. That's two hours of my life I'll never get back.

I don't mind driving 30 miles or more to get a good deal on something I really want though.