Houston Arcade Expo coin-op - Pinball and Arcade free play

[Raster]

Houston Arcade Expo
Houston Area Arcade Group
http://www.arcadecenter.com">www.arcadecenter.com
November 30-December 1, 2007

The Houston Area Arcade Group (HAAG) is holding their 6th Annual Arcade Expo on December 1st and 2nd at the Houston Grand Plaza Hotel.

Admission is $25 for a weekend pass or $15 for a single day, which gets you access to over 150 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!

Tickets:
Admission is $25 for a weekend pass or $15 for a single day, which gets you access to over 150 arcade games and pinball machines all set to free play!

Dates: November 30-December 1, 2007

Times:
Friday 6pm to 2am
Saturday 10am to 2am

Houston Grand Plaza Hotel
8686 Kirby Drive Houston, TX 77054

http://www.arcadecenter.com/arcadeexpologo.jpg

[Raster]

There's also a possibility of having some older console systems at the show.

[Damaramu]

Yup! There's a group of us Texas DP'ers planning for a meet there! Check out the link in my sig space!

[diskoboy]

Damn my moving from Dallas!! I'd definitely be there.

[Leo_A]

Sounds like fun, any chance of someone posting a list of what was there and pictures after the show for those of us who can't attend? I'd love to attend this with so many classic arcade games available.

[Gentlegamer]

I'm gonna try to be there . . .

[Steve W]

I'm hoping to be able to make it, and I'm going to try and bring my brother down there with me. Now that my jerk boss is gone and I have one that has no problem letting me off on any day I'd like, it's looking pretty positive right now.

[Icarus Moonsight]

I'll be going and I'll snap some shots... if I'm not too distracted. :p

[PapaStu]

**Moved to Events and Gatherings**

[Steve W]

Well, I should be seeing you guys there on Saturday. My brother's going with me, so I can't make it Friday (he works that day). Hope to see everybody there!

[Damaramu]

I, and a few of my friends, will be there! Look for the guy in the Metal Slug shirt!

[mezrabad]

Can anyone tell me if there is a special admission price for kids? There isn't one listed on the website, but then again I didn't know kids under 12 got into CGE for free until I showed up with my son and his $30 pre-purchased admission ticket.

I'm trying to decide whether or not to bring one of my kids or my wife and my kids. If I'm there look for me and my son in Domo-kun shirts.

[Damaramu]

I'll be going on Saturday! See you guys there!

[Steve W]

Well, what did everybody think of the show? Who was there? I know one member of the board was there, he recognized me from OVGE. But I didn't get his screen name because of the deafening music they were playing at the show. They had speakers up around the place and were playing a load of crappy music as loud as their amplifiers could crank it. You couldn't hear any of the games over it. I wanted to play a few games, but I couldn't get close to them because they had a blaring speaker right behind those machines.

Anyhoo, on to the show. They had plenty of machines, nearly all of which worked fine. A few of the pinball games were either acting up or totally refusing to work at all, but that's kind of expected with machines of this age. One thing I was a little upset about was that the Wizard of Wor machine was only there for tournament play and not regular play. The X-Arcade cab someone had brought had it loaded up, but you could only play one-player. The Armor Attack machine had apparently been converted to Star Castle, but I couldn't get it to work. I couldn't get Space Wars to work either, which was a shame. I've only played that one a couple of times back in the early '80s, I'd hoped to try it again.

My brother had a toothache, but he decided to go with me despite that. And he had a hell of a good time. He seemed to have more fun than I did. I'll definitely go next year.

[Damaramu]

My buds and I went on Saturday. We were there from 2pm til about 5 or 6pm. Had fun! I was disappointed the Indiana Jones pinball was out of order....and I wish they would turn the games up a bit louder so we can hear them over the music.

Beat Smash TV with one of my friends. That was fun...

[Icarus Moonsight]

Unfortunately missed going this year. Maybe I'll get to finally go to the next one. I been meaning to go for the last three years now and each time something comes up. Glad you had a good time Danny, sorry I couldn't join y'all. :)

[Steve W]

I wish they would turn the games up a bit louder so we can hear them over the music.

Or another crazy idea... maybe they shouldn't bother with music at all! I would have loved to hear the atmospheric sounds of a fully stocked arcade. Hell, I would have loved to hear any of the machines at all. But I couldn't... over the ear-bleeding sounds of the freakin' crap music they were playing. This isn't Studio 54, so turn down the Bee Gees music! Or completely off, which would have been preferable. I hope they learn from this year and drop the music altogether. And the guy making the contest announcements... could his voice been any louder? His voice was echoing as it reverberated off the walls and was picked up by the mike. There's a volume knob on that amp for a reason, pal!

Sorry, I'm still a little ticked off by the deafening sounds in that place.

I never located the place where they were playing the Atari 2600 on the side of the building. Someone had brought theirs and a projector and was out there having fun, but I never saw it. Kind of a shame. I'd love to see Adventure playing on the side of a hotel.

Houston was, as always, pretty humid. We drove down I-45, and didn't know we were approaching the downtown area until we were virtually on top of it, since the humidity had fogged up the skyscrapers. And my brother and I stopped at that indoor flea market inside that old Freed's Furniture building on 610, east of the Astrodome. I bought my sister a hanging decoration, a Christmas teddy bear with a floppy hat - you pull the hat off and it reveals a dagger. My sister lives in a fairly crappy neighborhood, so it's better to be safe than sorry. LOL Anyway, it was a shame that my brother and I couldn't go over to Louisiana Friday and go back Sunday, but it just didn't work out that way. My uncle couldn't put us up at his place, since his wife's family happened to be there. That would have made the trip even better.

My brother's really interested in building a MAME cabinet now. He plans on making one from scratch instead of gutting a pre-existing arcade cabinet, which I think is the best way of doing it. I hate to see any arcade machine destroyed for a MAME cab, even if the original game that was in it might not be working anymore.

[Damaramu]

Pics are up on the site:

Clicky! (http://www.arcadecenter.com/2007expo/nealfergusonpics/)

and a vid!

Clicky! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_HKs0Shyws)

See me playing Cirqus Voltaire at 5:23!