ScrewAttack Gaming Convention (Dallas, TX)

[mugenmidget]

SGC is returning for 2010, set to take place at the Westin DFW hotel from July 2nd to the 4th. What will it have this year?

-Arcades and pinball machines set to freeplay. The arcade space will be moving out of its previous room, so there will be more arcades to play.
-A console gaming room with almost every console imaginable and a sizeable library provided by GPX Gaming. It gave me my first chance to try the Neo Geo and Saturn during their 2009 convention.
-A vendor area with classic games for sale among other goodies.
-Panels with a few guests related to the hobby such as the AVGN, Keith Apicary, BrentalFloss and Uwe Boll, with more to be announced as the convention nears.
-Special competitions for both classic and modern games, including the main event: the Iron Man of Gaming.
-A movie room showing classic gaming related cartoons and other oddities.
-BYOC LAN and tabletop gaming areas.

I'll also be bringing "Mega Man 8-Bit Deathmatch" for its first public demo, you can see a trailer here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAXA0zDIwJ0

I'll also have two Saturn multi-taps ready for some 10 player Saturn Bomberman, along with the Neo Myth carts for SNES, N64, and Genesis if you'd like to check those out. I'd certainly like to meet the members that visit here who live in Texas, it's always nice to meet more people interested in classic games.

Here's my referral link if you're in the Texas area and interested in registering: http://www.sgconvention.com/register.php?ref=mugenmidget

With all that out of the way, is there anyone in the DFW area who might be attending? I read the thread here for SGC 2009 and it doesn't seem like the vendor area was well received. I'm not too confident they'll bring it up to OGVE levels of awesomeness, but I definitely think some good time can be spent gaming (and hopefully the increased size of the available arcades should make it more entertaining all around).

BTW I copied some of this from my thread at Sega-16, sorry if you saw this there as well. :) Just trying to bring out all of the classic gamers in Texas, last year's SGC 2009 was a fun show but I missed some of the truly retro heads like 98PaceCar and Brett Weiss unfortunately. Anyways, share your thoughts on SGC 2010 before and after and let me know if you plan to attend.

[16-bit]

I signed up as a vendor this year. I will be driving there will a van full of import video games to sell!

[mugenmidget]

Awesome, sounds like the vendor situation is shaping up already! :) Thanks for the heads up, I know that people last year were asking if Mad Gear would have a presence so it's cool that you're gonna deliver. I'll see how many Famicom games I can buy! :)

[neist]

I signed up as a vendor this year. I will be driving there will a van full of import video games to sell!

Yeah, I read that over on your boards.

I think I'll have to come out. Nothing against a lot of vendors, but if I drive somewhere I want to buy things that I can't find easily.

You have a lot of things I can't buy easily. :) It's probably the first I've ever been to one of your booths in person. Bought several things from you on eBay over the years, but never in person.

[98PaceCar]

I'm planning on being there, at least for a little bit. It's easy for me to make the trip across town and once I found out Mad Gear was going to be there, it was a no brainer for me! Chances are, I'll be hanging out at his booth most of the time, so look for me there.

Last year's show was a bit weak, especially in the vendor area. I think it was the first show I ever attended that I didn't buy a single thing. However, I did enjoy the Jack Thompson panel quite a bit. Are there any big guests announced yet?

[neist]

Uwe Boll is going to be doing a skype interview thing.

Be better if he was in person, but I can't imagine it'd be easy for him just to fly over.

[mugenmidget]

The guests do seem a little slim, even their most famous character (the "Angry Video Game Nerd") doesn't seem to be 100% confirmed as having an actual physical presence this year. Maybe he'll be appearing via Skype as well. :eek 2:

There's apparently a mystery guest remaining who voices a very popular character. I hope they mean "popular" in general and not "popular" within the context of ScrewAttack, I'd love to see someone like Charles Martinent or David Hayter.

\\^_^/

[98PaceCar]

The guests do seem a little slim, even their most famous character (the "Angry Video Game Nerd") doesn't seem to be 100% confirmed as having an actual physical presence this year. Maybe he'll be appearing via Skype as well. :eek 2:

There's apparently a mystery guest remaining who voices a very popular character. I hope they mean "popular" in general and not "popular" within the context of ScrewAttack, I'd love to see someone like Charles Martinent or David Hayter.

\\^_^/

I'm afraid that the definition of popular is popular within their community. They seemed to be a very closed group last year and I'm already getting that feeling again this year. I've not seen any official advertisements on other forums, just posts like this one. I hope I'm wrong as I really want to see a show take off in D/FW, but I just don't have a whole lot of faith in this one.

[8bitgamer]

I'll be there this year, probably selling copies of both of my books. Last year I was set up by the entrance, selling books and directing people to the sign-up booth for the convention.

I sold quite a few books, which surprised me (considering the youth and "badassness" of the clientele), and the Nolan Bushnell appearance was great, but I was disappointed with the small dealers' room and arcade. Hopefully, this year will be better.

My son wants to go to Keith Apicary's Talking Classics, so I'll probably be there as well.

[mugenmidget]

Cool to know you're showing up, Brett, I must have missed your table last year. It is funny considering the age of the people showing up that they'd be so interested. Granted, I was born in the late 80's so I'm not one to talk. :) But I started with the Apple II, Atari 7800, and NES at least (didn't get an SNES until Christmas of 1994). I think the AVGN goes a long way towards getting the SGC attendees interested in the retro side of things, as juvenile as his videos can be they also provide an interesting retrospective from time to time.

98PaceCar, they posted part of the schedule of events for the show this year and I feel some of the same concerns arising. Not to talk too negatively about it since it should still be a blast for console/arcade gamers, but it would be great to have a show in the DFW area that was more like the OGVE (at least from what I've seen). Texas Pinball Festival was pretty chill, I hope the arcade situation at SGC does improve this year so we can play some good pinball there as well.

All in all I'm excited that Mad Gear will be showing up and there's at least the promise of "more arcades". $40 for a "freeplay weekend" is good stuff as long as the selection is nice. :) GPX did a great job with the console gaming area last year, the only big problem being the lack of CRTs. I doubt that will change at all, which is a shame for the older systems. :( I wonder if I took a Sony PVM with a Genesis/Saturn hooked up via RGB if they'd change their mind and try to haul a few for next time, lol...

[mugenmidget]

Just popping in with random tidbits I've heard. Turns out 98PaceCar that they were actually looking at Charles Martinet (at least that was strongly hinted at in the Original Gamer Podcast #42) but he backed out because of "concerns of answering questions in SGC's atmosphere" or something to that effect. Whether or not that's true is another matter but it sounds like they tried. There's still a mystery guest remaining (may not necessarily be a voice actor), but whether or not it's someone big from the industry remains to be seen.

They've posted their floor plan for this year: http://i.screwattack.com/content/images/orig_2631_1_1274945756.jpg

It looks like the console gaming room may be a little smaller, which could be bad considering the arcades will now be sharing space there as well. But overall they have branched out a little bit, but if they run a good show this year then I can't imagine they'll hang around at the Westin DFW for too much longer as it can't possibly accommodate a significantly larger attendance that may come as a result of word of mouth/good reviews/etc.

There's also a mystery game planned for the Iron Man of Gaming 2010 that "nobody has played yet". Last time this happened was at the 2008 event where they had Guitar Hero: Aerosmith a few days before it came out. Hopefully it's a bit more than that, we'll see at the show.
:popcorn:

[98PaceCar]

I'd love to know his concerns about the atmosphere. That has to be some interesting stuff!

I'll be there at least on and off. I can't imagine there being enough to really hold my interest for an entire weekend, but I may end up there the whole time. Just gonna play it by ear.

Regardless, looking forward to meeting some new locals. Maybe we can all sit down and discuss what we'd like to see in a show sometime and just do it ourselves. I think an OVGE style show would do well here and given the money I've made at OVGE the past 2 years, I'm up for trying!

Has there been any mention of a trade room or something similar?

[mugenmidget]

I don't think there's been any mention of such a thing, which is a shame because I think that could turn out really cool. The "Hang Out Room" on that floor plan would probably be a good place for trading, last year they only had a small number of people playing DS games in there and not a whole lot else. I'm selling my TAC-2 controllers this weekend, I don't have too much else up for trade, check out my sad list:

-Pair of TAC-5s
-Atari CX 22 trackball (I am fairly sure this is broken, I would be happy to donate it to someone who would be willing to repair it)
-Plenty of spare 2600 "classics" like Combat, Missile Command, Demons to Diamonds, lol I think you get the picture. ;)
-Maybe some extra paddle controllers, not sure
-Sega Saturn Model 1 + S-Video Cables + Last Bronx (and some 3rd party controllers although I'm trying to hoard them for Saturn Bomberman lol)
-Samurai Shodown (PS2)
-Arcana Heart (PS2) with bonus Drama CD
-Sega Superstars Tennis + XBLA games pack-in disc (360), exciting rofl...

May have to cobble together some other things I'm willing to let go, but if anything in that dump interests anyone then let me know and I'll bring it up to SGC. And I'll try to check the "wanted" lists of people attending and see if I have anything.

But I'd definitely love to see something like OGVE down in Texas, I need to go to the next OGVE. :) Maybe like the "Texas Pinball Festival" but with less of an emphasis on pinball (but one or two tables would be cool) and more random exhibitors and trades. At the very least I know that a retro gaming show would bring in some quality CRTs for their older systems instead of the LCD panels that GPX will probably bring to SGC this year. :(

Anyways, definitely keep a retro DFW show in mind because I'd be happy to attend and spend money. :) And I hope to meet a few of you guys at SGC in a month or so!

[channelmaniac]

I'll show up as an attendee if I don't go pig hunting with a friend.

[8bitgamer]

Any of you going on Friday? I'll be there first thing, though the vendors room doesn't open until noon.

[mugenmidget]

I should be leaving soon, I have to be there for a volunteer's meeting at 7 PM.

[98PaceCar]

I should be there on Saturday.

Brett, are you going to have a table?

[8bitgamer]

I should be there on Saturday.

Brett, are you going to have a table?

I should have my same table by the hotel entrance. That's where they put me last year, and it worked great. I was even able to drum up extra business for the convention by telling passersby about the show. A couple of families who just happened to be staying at that hotel decided to check it out. I'll probably be there till three on Friday, five on Saturday, and till it gets slow on Sunday. My son wants to go to Talking Classics on Saturday at 5:30. Keith Apicary is pretty funny, so that should be entertaining.

[98PaceCar]

I should have my same table by the hotel entrance. That's where they put me last year, and it worked great. I was even able to drum up extra business for the convention by telling passersby about the show. A couple of families who just happened to be staying at that hotel decided to check it out. I'll probably be there till three on Friday, five on Saturday, and till it gets slow on Sunday. My son wants to go to Talking Classics on Saturday at 5:30. Keith Apicary is pretty funny, so that should be entertaining.

Cool deal. I've got some family coming into town this weekend, so I may not be there for a long time but I do plan on hitting the show for a while on Saturday.

Did they manage to pull anybody big this year? I haven't had a chance to look at the schedule too closely yet.

[mugenmidget]

From the discussion going on at their forums, it sounds like they tried for a few people but nothing came out of it. There are supposedly still surprises in store, but I don't imagine they'd jeopardize admission sales for the element of surprise if they had a guest that was a big draw.

[98PaceCar]

From the discussion going on at their forums, it sounds like they tried for a few people but nothing came out of it. There are supposedly still surprises in store, but I don't imagine they'd jeopardize admission sales for the element of surprise if they had a guest that was a big draw.

After scanning their site a bit this morning, I think you are dead on.

[8bitgamer]

Back from ScrewAttack, but I'll be returning later today since my son wants to see AVGN. We'll also go tomorrow for Talking Classics.

The show is basically the same as last year, but with no Nolan Bushnell or other keynote speakers. Also, there were only four arcade games set up for free play. The dealer's room was the same odd mix of imports (including a Super Game Boy 2 that I'd never even heard of), trinkets, and common and relatively common older and newer games, but there were some rarities for sale and some interesting odds and ends (such as the Captain America and the Avengers arcade plexi logo-- or whatever you call it--that I bought for $10).

From a personal standpoint, they wouldn't let me set up at a table near the entrance like I did last year, so I was just an attendee. They said it wouldn't be fair to other dealers, but last year they thought it was cool to have an author on hand to do a book signing. They agreed that it added to the show. They were polite enough this time, but for some reason they didn't have the same attitude this year about the signing as they did last year, which is strange since it went so well. I directed people to the sign-up booth, brought in some new customers who otherwise wouldn't have gone to the show, talked to customers who got bored between things to do, and sold a fair number of books. It was a win-win situation, and I'm baffled as to why they didn't feel that way this year.

We met Keith Apicary in the dealer's room, and he was very nice, but, as always, totally in character.

Overall, the show has an odd feel to it. Very exclusive. It seems like most of the people there knew each other from the website, and the people who run the show are YouTube stars, so that's kind of different. It's hard to explain, but it has a different vibe than any other convention I've ever been to. A lot of people there spend lots of time just hanging out, playing their DS.

mugenmidget recognized me and introduced himself, so that was cool. It was nice meeting him.

[8bitgamer]

Went back Friday night for the AVGN autographing. He was friendly, he posed for a picture with my son, and he seemed to be having fun. There was a long line, but it went fairly quickly and was well organized. The people in line were cool, and Keith Apicary was going around acting crazy, keeping everyone entertained. I'll be going back today for a screening of Wizard (we have the movie on DVD, but my son wants to enjoy the experience with a big group of people, probably making fun of it), and to attend the Talking Classics panel. And to say hey to Pacecar.

[8bitgamer]

Saturday:

Went back to ScrewAttack this afternoon in time for the 3:00 screening of Wizard, which my son wanted to see. He figured everyone would be making fun of it (some were), and that it would be fun to watch the film with a room full of people. Unfortunately, the movie didn't start until 3:45. I asked the ScrewAttackers at the registration desk to put the movie on, but they said there was nothing they could do about it. It was only after several other people approached the registration desk and asked the same thing that the film got played.

There were four more arcade cabinets set up on free play, including Donkey Kong. By sheer coincidence, I watched The King of Kong this morning (for only the second time), so I was definitely in the mood for some Kong. Unfortunately, I didn't break the world record. ;) My high score for the day was close to 40,000.

I had a nice time talking with Pacecar and picked up boxed copies of The Empire Strikes Back and Guerilla War for the NES.

Keith Apicary and his Talking Classics circus was funny, but it started about 45 minutes late. Also, I there was way too much male flesh on display for my tastes, though all the guys running around saying they were Rambo was mildly amusing. Keith himself is an amazing physical comedian and was very quick witted with off-the-cuff answers to the various questions posed by the audience.

Overall, it was an entertaining show, but I far prefer the more traditional videogame conventions like the Classic Gaming Expo and the Oklahoma Video Game Expo. As one person at the show said, ScrewAttack is not a convention--it's a party.

A couple of suggestions for to good folks who run ScrewAttack:

There needs to be a larger vendor's room with more videogame dealers.
There needs to be more of an effort to make the show more inclusive to outsiders.

There's aren't many videogame shows in Texas, so Kudos to SGC for a fun (if headache-inducing) convention (I mean party).

[mugenmidget]

It was great to see you there! I posted some other thoughts on the SGC forums, but I agree with your suggestions and hope they work towards improving things for 2011!

[Hari Seldon]

From what I saw on the video it looks more like a gathering of like minded people than a convention.

[mugenmidget]

From what I saw on the video it looks more like a gathering of like minded people than a convention.That's very accurate, which is actually cool in some respects but definitely annoying/frustrating in others.

[Hari Seldon]

So it's good for a while, then you want to get the hell out of there.

[8bitgamer]

From what I saw on the video it looks more like a gathering of like minded people than a convention.


That's a good, concise way to sum up SGC. Essentially a frat party for nerds (which is not a pejorative--nerds are cool).

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