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...ef=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.

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.

[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.

[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).

[xiaobao]

All living Egyptian Kings were believed to be a manifestation of the Son of God. His name in Egyptian and still is in Gaelic, IOSA. (refer Gaelic Gospel of Mark on line). IW in Egyptian means 'Coming' and Sah (S followed by glottal stop) means 'Son'. The story of IOSA is virtually identical to what is told in the gospels. Iosa was also known as HR (Hellenised by the Greeks into Horus). JR can also mean 'Day', therefore the light, and was also seen as the star Sirius. The heliacal rising of Sirius - refer The Egypt Code by Robert Bauval - was most important to Egyptian Priests(Astronomers). They watched for it closely and it only occurs about every 1460 years. One date ed hardy jeans was 1321 BCE and this is the most commonly accepted date for the birth of Ymn Twt Ankh. On the golden shrine of this king, a cartouche names him RE HEPREW NEB - God of All Creations (note Neb only means 'Lord' if preceding the noun. When it follows the noun as it does in this case it means ALL). The Hepre Glyp is a Scarab Beetle. St.Ambrose referred to Jesus/Iosa as 'The ed hardy schuhe Good SCARABaeus'. He was pointing out that Jesus had been an Egyptian King, and who better than the young King David? W is the Egyptian plural letter, so Heprew is creations not just creation. On the wall of David's tomb there is a painting showing him as God the Father (Wasar), God the son, and his Holy Ka. ed hardy bekleidung