Flack's OKGE Blog

[Flack]

OKGE -- Oklahoma Gaming Exibition
Saturday, September 18, 2004
Tulsa, OK -- Mariott Tulsa, Southern Hills

It seems like only yesterday that I found myself making the two hour drive to Tulsa, Oklahoma to attend 2003's OKGE. If you can believe it, I had only been a member of the Digital Press community for less than a month at that point, although I have been a gamer and a collector all my life.

My discovery of Digital Press and attendence at OKGE rekindled my love for this hobby. I've always enjoyed classic videogame systems (especially the Atari 2600, Super Nintendo, and Commodore 64), but finding other people who enjoy the same things I enjoy has personally raised this hobby to another level for me. Shortly after those two events occurred I found myself unboxing, dusting off and hooking up my old Atari's, Nintendo's and other classic consoles once again to enjoy them all over again. I have everything from my old Atari Stunt Cycle to my PS2, Gamecube and Xbox all hooked up to a huge projector screen complete with surround sound and bean bags, ready for gaming at a moment's notice.

One year and 3,000+ posts later, I find myself preparing once again for OKGE. This year I'll be on the other side of the table as an exhibitor instead of simply an attendee.

My wife has two nicknames for me: "The Collector of Collections" and "The Eternal Documenter". In this thread, I'll be wearing the latter hat. I've already jotted down some notes over the past few days and thought well gosh, if I'm making a blog I might as well post it on the Internet. Hopefully those of you who have never attended a gaming convention or even those of you who have will enjoy my ramblings as I prepare to celebrate my one year rebirth into this terrific hobby.

[Flack]

[ History ]

When the second OKGE (2004) was announced, I was estactic. Every gaming convention seems to take place on the east coast, the west coast, or somewhere around Chicago. Chicago's a 12 hour drive, everything else is further. Tulsa is 100 miles.

At some point I made the decision to cross over the line from attendee to exhibitor. Right off the bat, I knew what I was going to show -- my console copiers. The cool thing about console copiers is that most people have never seen one. They're not too common, overpriced, and thanks to emulation, becomming more and more obsolete. I have six of them -- two for the Sega Genesis, two for the SNES, and two for the N64. For my table, I decided I would bring all six of these, hook them up, show people how they work and have some fun meeting people over the weekend.

One of the biggest things I'm looking forward to is getting to hang out with some of the other DP regulars. Phosphor Dot Fossils and Icbrkr are two people whose interests very much reflect my own, and I'm looking forward to hanging out with them (however much possible) and if nothing else, just shooting the breeze about, well, classic breezes.

It's Friday night, September 10th. OKGE is officially one week away. I'll be in Tulsa on Friday on other business, which means I'm leaving next Thursday night and I have school next Wednesday night. That leaves me four nights to prepare for OKGE, and I need about twice that. Wish me luck.

[Flack]

[ The Weekend Before ]

I've started pre-packing and pre-planning. I thought everything I was taking could fit into two 30 gallon plastic tubs. Now it looks like I'll need four. One for things I'm showing, one for things I'm selling, one for table decorations, and one for things I'm taking but not showing.

Things I'm Showing Tub:
8 consoles -- six with console copiers, then my PSX dev unit and my PS2. The idea is to show the progression of console copiers, and then at the end show why they're obsolete.

Things I'm Selling Tub:
About 100 Atari 2600 commons, 10 or so NES carts, a bunch of 3rd party controllers and some other stuff. Still haven't decided on prices yet. I think I'm also going to sell off all my spare orphan consoles. I've got at least 5 Sega Genesis units, a few Dreamcasts, one N64 and a couple of Atari's that all work but need cables.

Table Decorations Tub:
This weekend I picked up a bunch of stuff that deals with "pirates". Having OKGE right around Halloween time has certainly made my life easier! Console Copiers are always associated with piracy so, there you go. I found these great signs that say "Beware of Pirates" and look like old wooden signs. They are great, after the show I am going to hang them over my desk, haha.

Taking But Not Showing Tub:
Will include TI 99/4A stuff for Earl, my Amiga 500 setup for Icbrkr to look at, possibly my video projector for some late night, big screen gaming, and (no doubt) other odds and ends.

This weekend I've been testing every console, making sure I have all the cables needed, writing down serial numbers from each console and each copier, and then sticking them in the appropriate tub. I still need to clean all the carts I'm preparing to sell. I panicked this weekend when I found I was missing a Sega Genesis video cable (taking two consoles, only had one video cable). Fortunately, Game Xchange came through for me with a $4 one.

At this point, I feel completely overwhelmed. Even though Tulsa is relatively close, it's too far to come home for anything I've forgot. This is a one shot deal, so I'd rather bring extra stuff than I don't need rather than leaving stuff at home I wish I'd brought.

[davidleeroth]

Great stuff, keep it coming. Just a note: extra power strips never hurt anyone. ;)

[Flack]

[ Floppy Woes ]

While going through and packing things up for OKGE, I discovered that one of my console copiers is no longer working. My Multi Game Hunter, which copies (er, backs up -- gotta get in that habit of saying that) both Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis games seems to have a bad floppy drive. No problemo -- after my son went to bed, Operation Drive-o Swappo commenced.

After prying and pulling, I finally got the unit disassembled. It's hard to hold a screwdriver when your hands are really sweatty. Anyone who's ever modded a console or even worked on something tiny that they paid a couple hundred dollars for has been there. After half an hour, I swapped out the old floppy with a new one from a PC and ... nothing. The light just stayed on like the drive was hooked up backward. Of course, looking at the cable, the drive WAS hooked up backward. Unfortunately, the end of the cable that goes to the motherboard is soldered on. It ain't comin' off. The other end is keyed so it can only go one way. The WRONG way.

So then, brute-force mode kicks in. Using a dremel, I filed the little tab out on the floppy drive. Then I pushed as hard as I could and got the cable in there. Well, at least the light wasn't stuck on. Now it's stuck off. I decided to hang up the project for the night before I turn this $200+ console copier into a three dollar pile of worthless plastic.

After scouring the web this morning (you can find ANYTHING with Google if you search long enough) I found out that older floppy drives can be set to either DS0 or DS1 through jumpers. I have no idea what that means, other than when I get home tonight I'll be looking for jumpers on that other drive. What great timing.

Last night I typed up a list of everything I'm selling at OKGE and put it in Excel, to keep track of sales. I have an underlying fear of having things stolen. I think this spreadsheet will help me keep track of stuff. In reality, I couldn't care less about Atari games coming up missing -- it's the irreplacable copiers I'm more worried about. I need to double check and make sure I have serial numbers for everything written down.

And now, I'm off to Radio Shack to pick up a power supply for one of my other copiers. I usually just have one of each plugged in at home, so I never realized how many cords, cables and power supplies I share between them all until this week. Besides, I love walking into Radio Shack with old hardware and asking, "Do you have a power supply for ... THIS?", showing them weird things from Hong Kong they've never seen. What's even better is when they tell me there's no way they'll have a part for it, and then after digging for a while I find what I'm looking for.

[Flack]

Made it. I'm in the 2nd floor lobby, by the elevators (using wireless internet). Come find the fat guy wearing red, white and blue and typing on a laptop. That would be me.

[Flack]

[ Final Preparations ]

I feel like a third grader in art class all over again.

It's midnight, the night before time to leave at OKGE. I've got construction paper, glue sticks, and scissors scattered across the kitchen table. I'm making my final OKGE display cards, and frankly, they look like ass.

When I was in third grade we had to make Valentine's Day boxes. You know, so all the little boys and girls could drop mushy cards that said things they didn't mean into your box. Anyway, we had a contest, who could make the best one. The night before, I wrapped a cardboard box in tin foil and took it to school. Turns out, everyone else spent weeks, if not months on theirs it seemed like. There was one that, to my third grade eyes, looked JUST like a snowwalker from The Empire Strikes Back. I was embarassed for how shitty my stupid tin foil box looked.

I hope my table tomorrow isn't the tin foil box incident all over again.

[Flack]

[ Made It ]

I got about three and a half hours of sleep last night. Left this morning around 7am, and headed for Pryor, OK. To make a long story short, I volunteeded to mentor a "troubled youth", and today was my day to do that. Fortunately, Pryor is only like 30 miles from Tulsa, where OKGE is. I wasn't thrilled about leaving several thousand dollars worth of gaming equipment locked up in the parking lot of a juvenile deliquency center, but whatta ya gonna do.

I made it to the hotel around 6pm. Checked in, went to the room ... and got on the internet. I saw a TON of greasy looking kids down in the lobby that I was sure was other OKGE kids. Turns out, they're having some sort of ministry (the gospel, not the band) meeting as well. I even saw a kid in a brown shirt with a NES controller on the front, I was sure he was one of "us". I found this out by striking up a conversation with one of them for a minute. Then, they began converging on me. I had to escape, lest they screw up my chaotic evil alignment.

I think I'm going to wander around a bit, laptop in tow. I've got netstumbler up and running too, so I'm getting tons of wireless connections in the Mariott. God bless technology. Maybe I'll see a hot chick and PM her.

EDIT: Forgot to mention ... on the second floor where I'm currently sitting they are having a 50 year high school reunion. Should be easy to spot the OKGE people from here, they'll be the ones that aren't senior citizens.

[Flack]

Great stuff, keep it coming. Just a note: extra power strips never hurt anyone. ;)

Great advice, that I followed. Along with my power strips, I also drug along a UPS. Power be damned! Worst comes to worst, people can gather around and watch me play MAME on the laptop. I counted plugs and I need two full power strips so I brought three.

[kainemaxwell]

Keep it coming, get pics too!

[Flack]

Jesse is here, and a couple of guys with about 15 arcade cabinets just showed up. I'm off to stick the laptop in the room and grab my camera. See ya soon!