California Extreme 2011 - Arcade and Pinball Show, July 9-10

[InsaneDavid]

Didn't see a thread for this yet (is shertz MIA or something?!) so I thought I'd post one.

The 15th Annual California Extreme Arcade Game and Pinball Celebration is about a month away.

caextreme.org has all the details.

This year the show will be taking place July 9-10, once again at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, California.

From the CAX site...

"California Extreme is the "Classic Arcade Games Show". It's an annual celebration of coin operated pinball machines, video games and other novelties you once found in game arcades. All games on display are set for free play, so leave your quarters in the ash tray in your car. You won't need 'em.

Why A Game Show?

Arcades were once a fixture on the American urban landscape, and games were plentiful in rural cities too. The closest heir of today is the so-called "Family Entertainment Center", which is populated with a myriad of devices designed only to take your coins quickly and leave you with a pile of tickets, which you exchange for cheap, trashy toys. This is entertainment? California Extreme was born with a desire to share fun coin op games that are in the hands of private collectors, and to hopefully spread the word that pinball machines were once plentiful, and that videogames were not synonymous with "martial arts" and violence. Buy/sell/trade! The show is a great place to bring games you want to sell, and also a good place to add to your collection, or even start it! Not all games will be for sale; many collectors bring games to show (or show off!) that they would never sell. So .. Can I play the stuff? Yeah .. Everything is on free play. You can play from the moment you arrive until we shut off the power at closing -- Play as many games as you want, in whatever order you want to. There are *HUNDREDS* of games, all set to play for free. This is a your chance to try those older games, or the newer games that you'd never put money into in an arcade. There are also many games that never got produced, and are very hard to find."

This will be my fourth year in attendance and the show is always a total blast. The Hyatt Regency is an incredible venue for the show and the past three years hosted there have been great. I hope to see some Digital Press users there!

[DogP]

I'll be there... like you said, it's always a great time!

DogP

[portnoyd]

Oh California Extreme, why must you be so far away.

[DogP]

Oh California Extreme, why must you be so far away.

Because it's so EXTREME... of course! Any closer and the east coast would crumble and fall into the Atlantic ocean.

DogP

[InsaneDavid]

Less than a week to go!

[Famidrive-16]

Was thinking of stopping by this year, although only for Saturday sadly. Had a blast in 2003.

[Famidrive-16]

Shoutouts to whoever brought the hacked SvC Chaos board.

Apologies to anyone I played in that game while using Athena.

[PapaStu]

We went today, met up with RetroYoungen and chummed about the afternoon. Glad I got a few games of Zeke's Peaks in before it decided to stop working. It's not Ice Cold Beer, but its more than acceptable.

I saw Insane David's back while he was playing Space Ace (or something next to it). Had to go get katchoo, turned back so I could say hi and he was gone.

There was a game vendor there (console games, not Pinball or arcades) who had a good spread of stuff, but most of it wasn't cheap. A few PS games I wanted, but not at the prices he was selling them for.

[InsaneDavid]

I saw Insane David's back while he was playing Space Ace (or something next to it). Had to go get katchoo, turned back so I could say hi and he was gone.

Super Don Quix-ote... and yet again I was denied completing it on an actual machine - too far out of practice. Wish I hadn't darted off so quickly so I could have said hi! The only way I can tolerate repeated attempts at that game is to walk away after exhausting a credit.

The console gaming stuff vendor was from Mad Gear, they sell a lot of stuff on eBay. I agree though, prices were too stiff for me but some nice stuff just the same. I bought 5 marquees for $20 from another guy selling parts: Donkey Kong Junior, Popeye, Pac-Man Plus, Mr. Do!'s Wild Ride, and Chase H.Q.. Also a CAX show poster and Video Pinball 2.0 poster from This Old Game.

I will say this year I got in more Quantum and Lunar Lander than ever before, which is always nice. A little disappointed not to see Teeter Torture there, but an extremely minor gripe. Huge turnout and crowd but still a minimal wait to play and everyone was really cool as usual. I'll also have to say that the aura of BO was far less common this year. I think we all get a little ripe as 2am approaches on Saturday but it wasn't to bad this time.

Zeke's Peak was back up late Sunday night, which actually worked out well since no one was over there as the show wound down. The machine wasn't in exactly the best location this year.

Was cool to play one of the prototype Tommy pinball machines with the different translite and other differences since it's one of my favorite modern pins. Also the Star Trek arcade game was running a Sega G80 System multikit so it also had Space Fury, Zektor, Eliminator and Tac/Scan in addition to Star Trek. I didn't even realize it had a multikit until late Sunday night when I took a closer look at the CAX sticker on it. It made an awesome game even better.

Good news is that next week I'll be moving to a ground level and larger apartment so next year I'll actually be able to bring my KLAX cabaret and Galaxian cocktail as long as they are approved. I heard rumors that they were turning away machines this year due to simply being full.

[InsaneDavid]

Some show pictures...


Four player linked arcade Cadash, awesome!...



First time I've seen a dedicated Circus Charlie, one of my favorite Konami games...



Me playing some Gyruss...



Magical Truck Adventure, good way to give your arms spasms for the rest of the show. I played it three times over the course of the show...



One of the games I specifically go to the show to play...



Show floor...



Show floor...



Show floor...

[InsaneDavid]

More...

Show floor...



Silverball Mania...



Probably my favorite middle era pin, Space Shuttle...



Rare vectorbeam game that was purchased new in box a few years ago, really fun, it's like Night Driver but WAY more intense...



Unintentionally cool picture of the Star Fire cockpit...



Prototype The Who's Tommy, playing this was one of the best parts of this year's show. Only ten or so were ever made before the production model was released (which had quite a few changes) I got the flipper blinders to come out pretty quickly on my first play, still one of my favorite modern machines...



Marco Specialties and Stern had a special setup for TRON Legacy, with the audio going through big speakers and a live video feed of the playfield. That's former NBA player and pinball wizard Todd MacCulloch playing, an awesome pinball talent...

[InsaneDavid]

More...

Video Pinball 2.0...



Video Pinball 2.0, this is a complete hack / rework of Atari's Video Pinball...



An absolutely beautiful Zoo Keeper on the Taito row, the whole row was spectacular to be honest...



A great show this year all around and over 500 games on the show floor.