Oklahoma Electronic Game Expo - April 26, 2008

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

The organizer of this event e-mailed me some info and invited me to represent the mighty PDF empire at his event...I'm still not sure if my stay-at-home-dad schedule will permit me to make it there as either exhibitor or attendee, but either way, I'm passing on the info to you, the consumer:

What - Oklahoma Electronic Game Expo
When - Saturday, April 26
Where - Oklahoma City Community College campus, located just south of OKC near Will Rogers World Airport
Who - Drew Stone / Computer Arts and Technology Society at Oklahoma City Community College

[jeffg]

What all will they have there? Is it kind of like the OVGE that they would have in Tulsa? It isn't too far of a drive from Ft Worth, and if there are a bunch of games for sale, I will make the 2 1/2 hour drive to check it out

[DeputyMoniker]

Thank's for the heads up. Would you mind PMing the organizers contact info to me? I may be able to get (a major beverage company) to help sponsor it. It will depend on the event size and whether or not we have a more "major" event that night. Maybe we could get our girls out there to hand out some free (energy drinks).

[Life of Brian]

I will definitely be there! I'll bring my portable Super Nintendo with me, too.

[Deadman]

Is there a website? Any other info available online? I'd like to go but need to know enough that it's worth the drive.

Thanks.

[namzep]

I'm in Stillwater so I mgiht make the hour drive to check it out.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Is there a website? Any other info available online? I'd like to go but need to know enough that it's worth the drive.

Thanks.
At this point, you know everything that I know; I've sent another e-mail to Drew asking him for more info that I can pass along, and inviting him to the forums here so he can tell you about it himself.

I'm planning on being there - provided I can get some more info from him myself - though I'm not sure yet what stuff I'll be bringing. I'd say that my collection of Coleco tabletop games and the PDF DVD are likely contenders though. :-P (I doubt that I'll be selling anything - I might bring my trade pile, a.k.a. Where Commons Go To Die, with me though.)

[dstone]

Hi everyone! Hopefully I'll be able to answer a few of your questions...


What all will they have there?

To reiterate what I just sent to Phosphor Dot Fossils:

OEGE is an event which is free for the public ($30 for a vendor/exhibitor booth) that is a celebration of video games, both old and new. We plan on having displays and vendors ranging from arcade machines to the early Atari consoles to the latest in games. There will also be vendors selling game-related items, such as clothing, music, movies, action figures and comics. Our college is now offering a degree in game design and will be featuring work from some of the students, including concept design, artwork, and simple complete games. The Computer Arts and Technology Society will also be sponsoring a game tournament. It is our hope that through this event that we can introduce retro gaming to the younger generations, provide a destination for fans of classic gaming to gather, preview new and exciting games from both studios and students, and have fun.


Is it kind of like the OVGE that they would have in Tulsa?

This event will be similar to the one in Tulsa, only it spans the entire age of gaming, from the classics to the bleeding edge. Just to make things clear, we are not affiliated with OVGE and highly recommend going to that event when it's held again.


Would you mind PMing the organizers contact info to me?

PM sent.


Is there a website?

There is no website at this time, but I'm trying to work with the college to set one up. If that fails, I will host one myself.


...inviting him to the forums here so he can tell you about it himself.

Thanks for the invite!

We're still looking for vendors/exhibitors. If any of you or someone you know of would like to participate, please get in touch with me. I can get the vendor/exhibitor forms sent via snail mail, email, or faxed. We also have mini-posters and fliers (in both print and PDF forms) along with some simple web graphics if you wish to help promote the event. Thank you all for your interest!

[ubikuberalles]

Thanks for answering the questions, dstone. I have one myself: What time in the day do you plan to open and close the show?

I'm hoping to go and it's a long drive for me. Knowing when you'll open will help me plan the trip better.

[dstone]

We're going to have the vendors that can make it set up on Friday starting at 4pm and ending at 8pm. Setup will resume Saturday from 8am-9:45am, with the doors opening for the public at 10am. We'll start wrapping things up at around 5-6pm.

[Flack]

Hey DeputyMoniker, you wanna put together an Oklahoma meet thing for that evening? Maybe do dinner at 5pm somewhere and then head back to my house for some fun and games?

[DeputyMoniker]

Hey DeputyMoniker, you wanna put together an Oklahoma meet thing for that evening? Maybe do dinner at 5pm somewhere and then head back to my house for some fun and games?

Sure but I may not be able to make it myself. I may have to work that night. I should know more next week.

[Rifter01]

I'm planning on going..! Hope to see everyone there! :)

http://card.mygamercard.net/gelsig/blue/QuietKrunkKuma.png

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I will definitely be there. Now I just have to figure out in the next three weeks what I'll be bringing with me, because my video-game-show-exhibitor days seem like part of another life now. *_*LOL

[DeputyMoniker]

I just got the "okay" from the Bob's. Schedule permitting, and I will know more tomorrow, we will be there with Full Throttle for everyone. No charge.

[Gapporin]

+1 <null>

[JT80]

I would love to go but I'm in the process of moving to Owasso. So hopefully next year.

[thegardentool]

Wahoo! Finally something interesting that is on one of my days off. :)

[DeputyMoniker]

Everything has gone though as planned and we will be there with drinks for everyone. Unfortunately, though, we have another event that evening so my girls won't be able to make it to OEGE. You will have two plain guys, one of them being me, and we will have ice cold Full Throttle in hand. Compliments of Coca-Cola. Yes, by that I mean "free."

[dstone]

We still have some table space available for the expo; cost is only $30. If anyone is interested, please get in touch with me ASAP.

For current vendors/exhibitors: Just a reminder, setup begins Friday, April 25 at 4:00pm and goes through 8:00pm. Setup will resume Saturday at 8:00am and the doors will open at 10:00am.

Thank you all for your interest!

[-^Cro§Bow^-]

Unless something unforseen should come up, I and my girlfriend Vicki plan on making the trek up Saturday. Not sure about the after party event at Rob's but we shall see...

[Flack]

Aw, you at least have to stop by!

[8bitgamer]

<<<OEGE is an event which is free for the public ($30 for a vendor/exhibitor booth) that is a celebration of video games, both old and new. We plan on having displays and vendors ranging from arcade machines to the early Atari consoles to the latest in games. There will also be vendors selling game-related items, such as clothing, music, movies, action figures and comics. Our college is now offering a degree in game design and will be featuring work from some of the students, including concept design, artwork, and simple complete games. The Computer Arts and Technology Society will also be sponsoring a game tournament. It is our hope that through this event that we can introduce retro gaming to the younger generations, provide a destination for fans of classic gaming to gather, preview new and exciting games from both studios and students, and have fun.>>>

This sounds great, but I have a few questions.

What are some of the names of the companies/vendors who have already signed on?

How long and through what venues has this been advertised?

Will there be any "guests" (programmers, etc.)?

Approximately how many attendees are you expecting?

Thanks,

Brett

[Flack]

Unfortunately most of that information doesn't seem to be available. Apparently no website ever went up for the event which is a shame. I've heard from a couple of out of state people who have been unwilling to travel to the show based on the lack of an official site or more information. I've been pointing people to the PDF flyer which I got from a forum post and rehosted on my own personal site just so I'd have something to point people to. (Link (http://www.robohara.com/oege/oege.pdf)).

On a side note, if you plan to make the trek up to OKC drop me a PM so I can send you directions to the after party at my place.

[Life of Brian]

I will definitely be there! I'll bring my portable Super Nintendo with me, too.

Looks like I lied - I cannot go. Work work work...

[Wraith Storm]

Well, unfortunately I got my dates mixed up. I thought my GF and I were already going to be in OKC the same weekend as the OEGE, so I was looking forward to sparing a few hours and joining up with you all.

But we ended up going to OKC last weekend for various reasons... Needless to say, driving 100+ miles 2 weekends in a row is gonna be killer on my wallet ESPECIALLY with gas prices :-/ as high as they are. As much as I was looking forward to meeting some DPers face to face, i'm afraid I have to pass.

Hopefully the opportunity will come again sometime soon.
You all need to post afterwards and let us know how everything went!

[Flack]

100 miles? Wow, now I feel hardcore for driving to Chicago and Las Vegas last year for gaming events. Gapporin, PDF and Icbrkr are all driving in from Arkansas this weekend; Ubikuberalles is coming from New Mexico.

100 miles? :)

[namzep]

I went ahead and dummied up nametags. They're really freaking simple (just the DP banner with a black border around them). I made them big so that you can type in your own text:

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/namzep69/forums/nametag.jpg

My tag:
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/namzep69/forums/namzeptag.jpg

[Gapporin]

Gapporin, PDF and Icbrkr are all driving in from Arkansas this weekend;

Well, technically, I'm only driving ~60 miles to get from Joplin to AR, and then Ice is taking care of the rest. :p

[neist]

Yay for nametags.

To help things along a bit with the recognition of myself, I'll be wearing my "you cant miss me" pants. They are salmon pink corduroy cargo-style pants. If anyone sees someone with crazy, pink pants, that'll be me. ;)

[icbrkr]

Well, technically, I'm only driving ~60 miles to get from Joplin to AR, and then Ice is taking care of the rest. :p

It's another 200 miles from here! :) BTW, bring some cough/cold medicine with you. Ginger has been sick all week, and I've been trying my dammest not to get it. So far so good but 2 more days to go. I figure after 200 miles with me in the car you'll get it too :D

[DeputyMoniker]

It's another 200 miles from here! :) BTW, bring some cough/cold medicine with you. Ginger has been sick all week, and I've been trying my dammest not to get it. So far so good but 2 more days to go. I figure after 200 miles with me in the car you'll get it too :D

Thanks for the warning. I'll start dosing up on vitamin C and antioxidants.

[DeputyMoniker]

I went ahead and dummied up nametags.[/IMG]

Me:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/DeputyMoniker/Nametag.png

[Wraith Storm]

Those name tags are awesome!!!

Man, I wanna be there so bad. Financially however, I am in a very unexpected situation that I hope NO ONE else ever has to go through. So at this time, (as ridiculous as it sounds;)) I actually have more important things on the horizon.

Then again, I could always steal some cash from my savings account. After all what good is a savings account if the money doesn't go towards something that you really enjoy and “saved” for. I mean seriously, what could be better than a game convention and then eating and playing some games with good company?

Hmmm... I must devise a plan...

[namzep]

Me:
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/DeputyMoniker/Nametag.png
Actually, that's a good idea to put your avatar on the nametag. I seem to know people better by their avatars then their forum names.

edit: http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/namzep69/forums/namzeptag.jpg

[DeputyMoniker]

Actually, that's a good idea to put your avatar on the nametag. I seem to know people better by their avatars then their forum names.


That's why I did it. Lol.

EDIT: By chance, do you collect Pez?

[neist]

Those name tags are awesome!!!

Man, I wanna be there so bad. Financially however, I am in a very unexpected situation that I hope NO ONE else ever has to go through. So at this time, (as ridiculous as it sounds;)) I actually have more important things on the horizon.

Then again, I could always steal some cash from my savings account. After all what good is a savings account if the money doesn't go towards something that you really enjoy and “saved” for. I mean seriously, what could be better than a game convention and then eating and playing some games with good company?

Hmmm... I must devise a plan...

I can completely understand, but how often does anything even happen in Oklahoma? I'm sort of in a difficult spot myself, but I have to splurge for this. If nothing else to support the event in the first year so it will happen next.

[namzep]

EDIT: By chance, do you collect Pez?
I did for years. I've been using the name since sometime in 95 or so. I'm glad someone actually noticed (most people seem to think I'm namzap or namezep or some other derivative that makes absolutely no sense).

[DeputyMoniker]

Hey-oh! Only a few more hours. Ice, PDF, Gapp, Jeff, Pezman, Ubik, and Rifter should be on the road soon. Maybe even right now!

[icbrkr]

Nope, but I'm ready to go! Just waiting on Gapp to get here and we're off.

[namzep]

I'll be leaving Stillwater at around 10 so I'll see everyone sometime between 11 & 11:30 (wearing nametags, I hope :) ).

edit: I'll be wearing a brown Mexico Joe's shirt, blue jeans, and black docs. Look for the Japanese girl with the large Mario's (not me, my avatar :) ).

[Steve W]

Well, I'm sitting with a group of DP folks in a Mexican restaurant eating lunch. The show was seriously sparse.. It looks like most of the other vendors cancelled. Earl (Phosphor Dot Fossils) was there, Vintage Stock had a small selection, there was a comic book vendor, and a board game seller. There was a Wii set up for tournament play, and a 360 with Guitar Hero playing. Other than that, it was barren. But I did get some Full Throttle free (Flack got 2 cases free). Planning on going back in a bit to see if things picked up.

[Rifter01]

..I know I was running late, but I got to OKCCC at about 4:45 PM.. And there was nobody there..

Alot has happened since my original posting.. My toe got seriously injured on a business trip about 10 days ago, towhich it still isn't healed.. I can't be on my feet for very long, etc, etc. I know I was late, but, at least from the last post it doesn't sound like the event was attended by very many.

I'm going to do my best to meet up with any/everyone going to the afterparty at Flacks, but right now I don't know. Like I said, my foot injury and work issues made me wonder if I would have to cancel _before_ today, but I was thinking positive as possible.

Sorry I missed anyone and/or everyone.. Hopefully if there is a next year's event it might be publicized a little more at least (I know what a college-student-run event is like somewhat since I was head of a student organization when I was in college, etc) Hope everyone has fun, I just wonder if more people would have shown if it wasn't on the same weekend here as the arts festival downtown, etc. *_*

Rifter

P.S. I'm just glad that someone tried to put this event on, I'm just frustrated because my personal health had to give out just right before this event. ^^;

[8bitgamer]

Well, I'm sitting with a group of DP folks in a Mexican restaurant eating lunch. The show was seriously sparse.. It looks like most of the other vendors cancelled. Earl (Phosphor Dot Fossils) was there, Vintage Stock had a small selection, there was a comic book vendor, and a board game seller. There was a Wii set up for tournament play, and a 360 with Guitar Hero playing. Other than that, it was barren. But I did get some Full Throttle free (Flack got 2 cases free). Planning on going back in a bit to see if things picked up.

That's kind of what I was afraid of. Glad I didn't make the drive, but I do hope something like this gets off the ground for next time. A website and more advance notice would certainly have helped.

[namzep]

I would definitely say that the show could have been better but it was definitely fun getting to meet and hang out with some of the guys from the board. Flack has a seriously awesome arcade setup out back of his house. Though, I think he has a bit of a problem with Shinobi. :)

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Here are some of my OEGE photos:

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegeearl.jpg
Oi now!

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegewii.jpg
Wii all got crazy.

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegehero.jpg
This Guitar Hero setup not far from our corner was just about the busiest thing all day long.

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegegang.jpg
The real Retrogaming Roundtable: clockwise starting from far left, Namzep, Icbrkr, Flack, Gapporin and Ubik.

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegegames.jpg
This vendor (though the person manning the table was absent at the moment, presumably engaged in the taking of an epic leak after all the Full Throttle we all downed) was selling board games and collectible card games.

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegecomics.jpg
This vendor had a ton of comics, and a heap o' manga. I'd never bought manga before in my life until this show.

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/pdfdvds.jpg
This vendor had a heap of DVDs about video gaming history. Odd, that. (Special thanks to Flack for saving my butt on getting the cover artwork printed in time. Kinko's < Flack.)

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegecats.jpg
Interesting stuff from the school's CATS program. I'm presuming that's the escape pod that the little green guy's going to clamber into to escape Yosemite Park there.

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegefuel.jpg
A good time, and copious quantities of Full Throttle, were had by all. I was grateful that DeputyMoniker was throwing this amount of product around, because I never would've stayed awake for the drive home without it!

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegestock.jpg
Vintage Stock of OKC was there. Vectrex represent! I desired some of their Vectrex games carnally, but they were part of a bundle that couldn't be parted out.

More in the next reply...

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegeflackcade.jpg
After the show: Ubik, Icbrkr and Kent warm the buttons at the legendary Flackcade.

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegecat.jpg
And Don Piano warms the windowsill. I petted Flack's cat just about the moment I stepped in the door and he followed me around the rest of the time I was there.

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegeice.jpg
Icbrkr taking a picture of me taking a picture of Icbrkr taking a picture of me taking a picture of...

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegegapp.jpg
While Icbrkr and I tie pretzels into the space-time continuum, Gapporin rifles through Flack's coinboxes. I know he was hard up for a ride out to OKC, but dude.

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oege1541.jpg
12328 (that's 1541 x 8 there) + 64 = 12392.

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegefree.jpg
Flack has a terminal illness: he's sick of this huge ancient Televideo dumb terminal sitting in his kitchen. You want it? It's free! Who can resist it?

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegeboard.jpg
You know, just in case being in an arcade with a couple dozen games gets boring and all.

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegewars.jpg
Flack totally validated some of my home decor here: boxed vintage Star Wars toys are a great decorating idea.

http://www.thelogbook.com/earl/hizzouse/q2-08/oegeloot.jpg
I didn't grab much in the way of loot this trip: a stuffed Bowser for my son (who was totally fascinated with all the "spikes"), and some Star Wars manga, which is something that has intrigued me for ages (and I could hardly pass up at $3 a pop).

Special thanks to Flack for making sure Kent and I didn't go to Wichita Falls instead of his place. I'm not sure what happened there other than me needing to drink more Full Throttle while I was behind the wheel...

I hope this show continues into a second year; one thing to keep in mind with the promotion and the lack of a web site is that the show's organized was having to cram all this stuff through the school bureaucracy at the end of a semester, which is something that most of your other shows simply don't have to deal with. However, I'm hoping that having the infrastructure of the school behind this thing will keep it around despite the relatively thin crowd this year. The room was most active in the afternoon, a bit thin in the morning, and positively dead around lunchtime. A little more promotional "oomph" and OEGE could really take off.

Thanks to everyone for buying my assembled-in-under-three-weeks DVD project (http://www.thelogbook.com/phosphor/pdf-dvd/) - this paid for some extra hard drives I recently bought to help me with that other big DVD project everyone's been waiting on!

[Rifter01]

Just curious.. What game was being played by all on the Wii? I read that it was setup for 'tournament play' but what game, specifically? Smash Bros., or..?? Thanks.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Smash Bros., Wario Ware and that old crowd-pleaser standby, Wii Sports.

[thegardentool]

Yeah I had to work on some photo processing for a client, or rather my sister. She needs her senior photos done so I got to spend the day working on them. :-\

Maybe the next time.

[namzep]

Smash Bros., Wario Ware and that old crowd-pleaser standby, Wii Sports.
I'm guessing Wario Ware and Wii Sports were in the afternoon. I only ever saw Smash Bros but I left (and didn't come back) around 1ish.

[Steve W]

I missed Wii Sports all together. I really wanted to play Wii Bowling with a few folks.

Earl, I like the angles on all your photos. They really fool you into thinking that there were vendors and attendees there. It's such a shame that the people putting this show together weren't a little more aggressive with their promotion of the event, and getting more vendors. But from the looks of it, not only did all the vendors drop out (Coca-Cola had a table reserved, but didn't show up. Come on now, Coke? They didn't show up to promote their stuff? Okay, the Full Throttle division was there, but still...) but a bunch of the DP folks that said they'd come by decided to stay home. It made a good excuse for the forum-goers to meet up and hang out, but it was a serious disappointment that the main event was so poorly handled.

Still, to look on the bright side, I got the chance to visit Oklahoma City, meet a bunch of good people, do some thrifting, and on the way out of town I stopped at a Game eXchange for the first time and bought a few things. I picked up an odd looking Commodore 64 cartridge with no label. I haven't had the opportunity to try it out yet, I'm really curious as to what it is.

[thegardentool]

I wish I could have made it. Sounds like the after party might have been more exciting than the acutal event.

Still working on the damn photos and my wife just gave me a 12-page paper to copyedit for one of her classes. Sigh the world just keeps on giving me the shaft.

[Wraith Storm]

I wish I could have made it. Sounds like the after party might have been more exciting than the acutal event.


My thoughts as well... I wanted to be there so bad.

Big thanks to Phosphor for uploading those pics. Maybe next time I can join up with everyone.

[Pantechnicon]

Looks like it was a good time, particularly the Flack-sponsored after party. Maybe next year I can hitch a ride.

[Flack]

I hope you do, Pant!

OEGE Pix
http://www.robohara.com/albums/OEGE_2008/

OEGE After Party Pix
http://www.robohara.com/albums/OEGE_Party/

In both of these albums, I combined PDF's posted pictures with my own.

[Flack]

OEGE Review
(blog repost)

Last Saturday (April 26th, 2008) marked the debut of the Oklahoma Electronic Game Expo (OEGE). Unrelated to the already established Oklahoma Videogame Expo (OVGE), OEGE is a new show that took place at Oklahoma City Community College (OCCC). The show was sponsored by OCCC's Computer Arts & Technology Society (CATS), and was spearheaded by student and club member Drew Stone. The first draft of this post was well over five pages long; I've since removed 90% of the details, and decided to go with this more generic review of the show instead. A review of the OEGE After Party (which took place at my house) will follow later today.

OEGE was plagued with issues from word go. Drew tapped CATS and OCCC as sponsors for the show, but as he soon found out, linking your event with such organizations (especially a school) is a double-edged sword. The upside is you can get lots of floor space inexpensively; the downside is, you have to play by their rules. From what I understand, red tape school politics delayed the launch of a website to the point where it never happened. With no website or official advertising, the show was doomed to a low turnout from the start.

The only official advertising I saw was a PDF flyer which was posted on one forum (I downloaded the flyer and rehosted it on my own site just so I could post links to it -- it was the only way I knew to get the word out about the show!). Taken from the flyer (http://www.robohara.com/oege/oege.pdf):

"Oklahoma Electronic Game Expo is a day of video-game revelry. Our 2008 Expo will mark the first gaming destination in Oklahoma- where gamers and industry insiders can come together to celebrate video-games. Attendees come to OEGE to experience the newest games, encounter game industry legends, compete in tournaments, buy games, and meet with friends."

Based on the above text, friends of mine from Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, and even New Mexico drove to Oklahoma City to attend OEGE, in hopes of experiencing the newest games and encountering game industry legends. Instead, they found four vendors, two game stations, and an CATS booth. Of the four vendors, two were videogame related. One was Vintage Stock (http://www.vintagestock.com/), a midwest-based gaming chain. The other was Phosphor Dot Fossils, who was there to debut his Phosphor Dot Fossils DVD (http://www.thelogbook.com/phosphor/pdf-dvd/) (it's fantastic -- review coming soon!). The other two vendors were selling comic books and board games. Aside from the four vendors there were two game stations -- an Xbox 360 running Guitar Hero, and a Wii (hooked up to a projector) playing a few different games (mostly Super Smash Bros. Brawl).

The word on the show's floor was that several vendors either cancelled or pulled out at the last minute. I don't know what went on behind the scenes. What I do know is we had seen everything the show had to offer in less than half an hour. While it was a nice opportunity to see all my online friends in person again, there wasn't much for us to do there. Icbrkr and Gapporin played a few rounds of Guitar Hero at the show (a game both of them own at home, too). Had I driven from another state to attend the show I might have forced myself to stay longer ... but I didn't. After looking at everything on the showroom floor two or three times, most of us split -- first, to eat, followed by a bit of thrift store game hunting.

Thanks to all the vendors who did show up, and congrats to Drew Stone and company for pulling off their first event. I'm sure the gang learned some tough lessons first hand this time around, and I expect great improvements will be made to next year's show.

OEGE 2008 Photos (http://www.robohara.com/albums/OEGE_2008" target="_blank)

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

(blog reply repost)

The mention of only two game stations reminds me to feel astoundingly foolish about the whole thing; I actually had my spare Odyssey2, its RF box, and some games set aside (knowing that Gap was going to be bringing that two-ton color TV back to me that I'd loaned him a year ago in Springfield), as well as the ol' battery-powered Coleco tabletop games, ready to go...and left them at the house (along with the coax I'd set aside for the DVD player, which was an accident that you bailed me out of) because I was having an incredibly hard time getting my butt in gear that morning, having had to take care of Evan a lot later into the previous evening than I expected, and then Kent and I had to do some rather major work on the car that brought us into town. I didn't get to bed until about 1 in the morning...yet again. I think the world's going to explode if I'm ever well rested for one of these things, and I can't imagine what it's like organizing the whole show if I lose that much sleep over my silly little booth.

But the point is: I would've had more games to play there if I hadn't been so wiped out. So I have to take some responsibility for the show having as little actual gaming going on as it had. I'm just thankful for the free-flowing Full Throttle, otherwise I might never have woken up. As it is, we had PLENTY of space where I could've had more games going, which I regret - it kinda became the "DP members' command center" instead, though that was cool in and of itself. If you wanted to see all the baby pictures I had in my wallet, PDFtopia was a great place to hang out. ROFL

Point is, I've heard a lot about how little video gaming there was going on, and I have to shoulder some of the responsibility for that - it basically came down to me not wanting to haul four extra boxes out to the car. Even with the power issues I had at my table, there are any number of things I could've brought - the copious quantities of video game toys and trinkets I have, Electronic Games magazines and some related books (Supercade, Arcade Fever, Ralph Baer's and Bill Kunkel's awesome books, and that Commodork guy too)...basically, for very little extra haulage, I should've had enough stuff on hand to cover all that table space I wound up with by the grace of Other People Not Showing Up that might've goosed the show along quite a bit. I guess that's the difference between me now and me a couple of years ago: haul 20+ lbs. of kid around enough, and you don't feel like picking up one more thing for the rest of the week!

[Gapporin]

Icbrkr and Gapporin played a few rounds of Guitar Hero at the show (a game both of them own at home, too).

Not I...I don't even own any next-gen (this-gen?) consoles. >_>

[Rifter01]

Well, I had this nice long post, but then my browser crashed, so I'll just get to the point(s):

1) I'm still looking out for more Local OKC events maybe before it gets too hot outside and all my free time is thinking of swimming, white water, pools, etc. or travelling (humidity and 100+ degrees are my downfall - without cool air or non-A/C :devilish: then it isn't an option for me anymore)

2) My foot is still injured, so I don't really want to go near crowds of people that might injure my foot any further .. This is what keeps me away from trying a few of the new places out there... (i.e. Hey Day down near Norman, OK.. From what I've heard their arcade is really small anyways, maybe the new building next door to them has a larger arcade.. The new building is called something like Alligator Andy's from what I've heard.. But, still, the prospect of little kids running around and/or maybe stepping on my bad foot might stop me from trying them out)..

Anyways, if anyone hears of any new events, esp. retro-themed, pinball-related or video game tourney (formal or not) please pass them along or post.. (I'm still not exactly sure when Soonercon is going to happen, but that isn't until June and isn't really video game related anyways).. I'd really like to get some tournament gaming in offline (any style of game, retro, fighting, halo, 1-vs-1, 4-vs-4, etc) since my xbox live gold is over with for awhile --it wasn't really like I was playing it much anyways.. My g/f plays XBL more than I. I'd rather play Pac-Man or Pinball usually.. Take care everyone..

Peace,
Rifter

P.S. I just noticed this today, OGVE will return in August. Check out the link here (http://forum.okcoin-op.com/index.php?topic=1746.msg10770).