-=< Ovge 2k9 >=- !

[Steve W]

Just knowing that somewhere on the highways of Oklahoma and Texas, someone was blasting a potent cocktail of old-school MST3K music, Space Battleship Yamato soundtracks and Marble Madness background music makes me happy.

Sorry, man, but this trip's audio was supplied entirely by the new Hitchhiker's Guide audiobook. I even saved up a bunch of podcasts to listen to just in case I lost interest in And Another Thing..., but that never happened.

By the way, under the joystick box that item is a Mega Drive to Genesis converter. I have a few Japanese carts that I've found in the wild, and I haven't had many problems getting my Genny to play them, but it's nice to have.

[neist]

Here's a shot of the goodies I bought at the show. It occurs to me that I bought the most from Earl at the Phosphor Dot Fossils table, and most of it wasn't video games, it was a DVD set and CDs. As far as games go, I didn't get much to my own amazement. A lot of the reason was dwindling cash (always a good excuse) and the simple fact that I already have a whole lot of what people are selling. My collection is getting nice and full now, and I need less to fill in the blanks. I loved the fact that 98PaceCar brought Gizmondo games, essentially just for me since I'm the only other person he knows who bought one.

Oh wow! Is that a Mega Key (Genesis/Mega Drive converter)? How'd I miss that?

That's a great find! Quite difficult to locate.

Ah yes, I remember you quite well. You played a few different times on my Vectrex and we talked for a few minutes as well.

Yup. I remember you as well. This was actually what I'd consider my first classic gaming convention, and it was quite fun. I'll have to make sure I come from now on. Maybe even set up a booth.

[Magnaflux]

Great show guys, I had a blast.

[obliterator918]

Were you the seller? I want to know where you managed to find a whole bunch of shrinkwrapped 1988 Atari compatible joysticks from England at? Talk about a cool find, locating an entire case of these things in this day and age!

I used to have one of these sticks back in the day, but it had a different label on it. Were all these designs from one company, or did Mindscape license the design from someone else?

I was the seller. I didn't expect many people would be interested, but I managed to sell a few. I got a box of those off someone who found them in a warehouse a year or two ago. I don't really know much history about it, except that if you google Powerplayers Joystick you can find a couple of old magazine reviews of it. I used one on my Atari for a while and it is quite a nice stick. Much more comfortable to use for extended periods of time than the Epyx 500 XJ, which always made my hand sore.

[8bitgamer]

a write-up and some photos posted here[/URL] if anyone's interested.

Great photos, Earl! Thanks for the kind words about my books!

[Pantechnicon]

Well, well, it was a pretty great time. This is the first occasion wherein I've actually done any participation in a show like this beyond simply attending it and I look forward to other opportunities to do so in the future.

It was a pretty good turnout imo and I think the location worked really well. Being able to walk from the hotel as well as to or from a good number of eateries made a lot of difference with respect to my impending stress level over how I was going to be able to feed my kids some lunch without abandoning my table. But it all worked out fine (Ubikuberalles sprung for pizza so we were good).

TV Death Squad...well...I was on the far side of their "stage" and I guess I wasn't paying too much attention to them at the time, although the noise level did seem a little loud. But I think I got a clue as to why they weren't so well-received when I tried to show my wife some video of them playing their set and after three seconds she asked me to switch it off because she couldn't stand it.

Of course, I have to `fess up to perpetuating my own brand of musical annoyances as well in the form of a theme-appropriate mix I was playing including such wonderful classics as the Godzilla March, Jet Jaguar theme and the Mothra song (Sing it with me! "Mosura-ya! Mosura-ya! Dongan kasakuyan indomu.") I was fairly certain PDF, who was sitting to my right, was about to go crazy from it. Next time I'll bring smaller speakers.

Just a few more pictures to add:


Spotted in Amarillo on the way to the show. It's not my truck, but perhaps it should be?


My son Alex teaching the wee ones the finer points of Kaiju-gaming.


The winners of our GODDAMM (Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee) tournament.


Wouldn't be a proper show without a little cosplay, so here's my daughter modeling her Halloween Yoshi costume a week early.


Bella back in the hotel room with her Yoshi swag (the kid likes Yoshi, what can I say).

Great show, folks. Looking forward to 2010!

[purenergy]

OVGE 2009 was great!
Being able to see Crossbow, PacFamily, PDF, Flack, Steve W, Ubik, 8bitgamer and everyone else at OVGE made this an event not to forget.
The Pac-Man Collection at my table was a big hit! (And the Pac-Man neon lights that I found on eBay drew a smile from each person that saw them.) Everyone enjoyed playing this excellent Colecovision game from opcode. In fact, several players did not want to stop, and had to be pulled away from the controls, for another person to start their game. More than one person asked if the sound effects on opcode's Pac-Man Collection were digitized straight from the arcade games.

Had a bad power supply with my second Colecovision, so I displayed a 2600 with some homebrews, and a Harmony cart(which I need to update, as it was slow to load.) I almost forgot that I brought a modified Flashback 2, and put it out late in show. The FB2 had some good comments, and gamers enjoyed playing carts as well as the pre-loaded games.


Although this years turnout was lower than expected, everyone that attended enjoyed some great classic gaming goodness. Competitions at OVGE were definitely the most popular part of the show. Hopefully, next years show will have even more competitions, and possibly some multiplayer gaming fun!

Thanks for everyone for such a great show this year.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I own a few Godzilla soundtracks (and they weren't for sale!), so for me it was a bit more of an exercise in "remember which one this is from". And believe me, after TV Death Squad, I was ready for some Godzilla music. You have no idea. OK, I promise I'll stop carping about the music now.

[purenergy]

@PureEnergy: Who made those controller sets? Got better pics?

Yurkie made the Mario Bros Controllers (another pic, with box) and he is planning to make more, along with the release of Mario Bros for the Colecovision.
DoubleDown made the custom Donkey Kong and DK Jr controllers.
Both sets were excellent, professional look and feel, very nice!
Everyone at OVGE asked if they were for sale. I told one person "Yes, for $500 cash."

j/k.....they are not for sale!

[Pantechnicon]

I own a few Godzilla soundtracks (and they weren't for sale!), so for me it was a bit more of an exercise in "remember which one this is from".

Just for grins, here was the playlist:

Army Theme from Gojira
Godzilla March from Godzilla Raids Again
Closing Credits Theme from Godzilla vs Gigan
"Mosura-ya" from Godzilla: Tokyo SOS
Jet Jaguar Theme from Godzilla vs. Megalon
"Godzilla" by Blue Oyster Cult
Opening and Closing Credits Themes Godzilla x Mechagodzilla

[Steve W]

Had a bad power supply with my second Colecovision, so I displayed a 2600 with some homebrews

Isn't that always the way? The one day you want the console to perform, and the power supply goes belly up. It's not too shocking with the Colecovision, though. They cost-reduced that console down so far that it's amazing any are still working nowadays.

You should have brought a Dina 2-in-1 with you as a backup! I'm sure a whole lot of people there have never seen one before. A couple stores here in the DFW area called Electronic Discount Sales (Irving and Arlington) used to have loads of them after the big Telegames warehouse was damaged by a tornado. I bought one for $9, found another one recently in a thrift. They're a nice oddity, that would impress even more if I had any Sega SG-1000 carts to play on it in it's second cartridge slot.

[obliterator918]

Finally got some video posted. Nothing special, just walking around.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a99776RKq8g

[purenergy]

In case anyone is interested in the Pac-Man collection that was at my table, here's what opcode just said:
"Actually I should have a new batch of cartridges available soon, in case someone is still interested. If so, please contact Bia (bia at opcodegames.com) and ask to have your name placed in the list."

Seriously, do not miss this game. It is that good. Arcade graphics, sounds and gameplay, all on your Colecovision!

[slapdash]

Here's a shot of the goodies I bought at the show. It occurs to me that I bought the most from Earl at tI loved the fact that 98PaceCar brought Gizmondo games, essentially just for me since I'm the only other person he knows who bought one.

I wasn't at the show, and I didn't buy one "right away", but I'd still love to find Interstellar Flames 2. Anyone?

@pureenergy: Thanks; I did find Yurkle elsewhere, but I'm not sure I can afford the controllers, dang. Is DoubleDown an AtariAge guy, or is he here? And is selling his too?

[Steve W]

I wasn't at the show, and I didn't buy one "right away", but I'd still love to find Interstellar Flames 2. Anyone?

Eh, you're not missing much. I've played it, and it's pretty unremarkable. I was hoping it would be like Cybermorph or something, but it's a bland on-rails shooter with collision detection problems (or that might be just the version I tried).

It just occurred to me... you have a Gizmondo too? Dang, I wish I had known. If you attended the show (did you? Your location says Illinois, which is a bit of a drive) Darren and I could have brought ours and we could get some multiplayer gaming going. I've never had the opportunity to play against another player, let alone two. It's probably something that'll never happen again, I'd wager.

[dstone]

I had a great time. Got to see several familiar faces again and had the chance to meet several more people from the forums. Had a blast playing Space War with Mr. Deadman and making several laps around the booths.

I left with quite a few games, Flack's VIC-20 is now keeping my C64 from getting lonely, and I have some great entertainment ahead of me with Earl's Phosphor Dot Fossils Level 2 video and Brett's latest book. My little sister managed to find an Earthbound cart and came in 5th place (won the 4th place prize since 4th disappeared) in purenergy's Ms. Pac tournament. She's already asking me about next year.

Managed to make it out without taking any photos, the camera I brought had dead batteries and completely forgot about my cell phone camera once I got going.

[purenergy]

I wasn't at the show, and I didn't buy one "right away", but I'd still love to find Interstellar Flames 2. Anyone?

@pureenergy: Thanks; I did find Yurkle elsewhere, but I'm not sure I can afford the controllers, dang. Is DoubleDown an AtariAge guy, or is he here? And is selling his too?

DoubleDown11 is a member here.

I recently asked if he had any more for sale, but he said no.
Sorry about that.

[slapdash]

Ah, bummer. And as to Gizmondo, yes I have one, but it's currently buried, and I haven't actually tried it out yet. Oh, and no, I wasn't at the show anyway, heh.

[dayzed4life]

still cant believe i missed this

[8bitgamer]

So, Crossbow, how did the show fare for you? Did you at least break even? Do the chances of having a show next year look good?