Garry Kitchen (Keystone Kapers, Space Jockey) at CGE

[digitalpress]

I'm going to announce the industry legends we've confirmed attendance for at this year's Classic Gaming Expo at the Classic Gaming Expo site, but in this forum I'm going to detail them so you can take note of which games and items that you might want to bring along for signatures!

Garry Kitchen

With over 18 years of experience in interactive electronics, Garry Kitchen has been in multimedia entertainment since the beginning. His innovative hand-held electronic game Bank Shot, marketed by Parker Brothers in 1980, was named one of the 10 best toys of the year by Omni Magazine. In 1982, Kitchen designed and programmed Coleco's smash hit Atari version of the Donkey Kong arcade game, a video game cartridge whose sales eclipsed $100 million dollars. Moving onto Activision, Kitchen's 1982 release Keystone Kapers received critical acclaim and achieved worldwide sales of over 750,000 units. Space Jockey and Pressure Cooker, also for the Atari VCS, were highly regarded as well. Garry Kitchen's Gamemaker, a top-selling Activision title for the Commodore 64, earned Kitchen the title of Video Game Designer of the Year in 1985.

In 1986, Kitchen founded Absolute Entertainment, Inc., building it into one of the leading video game developers in North America. Under his leadership, Absolute created over 120 software titles while working with such leading entertainment companies as Nintendo, Sega, Sony, 3DO, Paramount Pictures, MCA, 20th Century Fox, Acclaim, and Electronic Arts. Kitchen's 1991 release, The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants, published by Acclaim Entertainment, was praised by Variety Magazine as a breakthrough in the video game licensing of television properties. The "Bart vs...." line of Simpsons games went on to sell over 2 million units, establishing Bart and family as a mainstay property in entertainment software. Kitchen's 1992 release, Super Battletank, was named Best Simulation Game by Game Informer Magazine.

Kitchen has received numerous awards for his work, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in Video Games. His knowledge and experience in interactive entertainment is well respected, with numerous television appearances including CNBC, ABC Eyewitness News and CNN as well as interviews in various consumer and trade publications.

By treating the Internet as the latest in a series of video game platforms, Kitchen brings this unique blend of talents to the Internet. He is co-founder and President/Chief Executive of Skyworks Technologies, Inc., a privately held multimedia developer specializing in interactive marketing and high-end game development. In addition, Skyworks is an authorized developer for the Sony Playstation video game platform. Skyworks' clients include the LifeSavers Company, the Nabisco Biscuit Company, the Sega Channel, Micronet Co. Ltd., Scientific American and others.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Oh man, am I gettin' all TINGLY about this.

I can't tell you how many hours I spent on Kitchen's Gamemaker for the Apple II. The only reason I haven't done a novel-length review of the thing is because I lost the disk at some point. I kid you not, we used Gamemaker to do the titles for cable access projects back when I was in college.

I am SO looking forward to this. Already shaping up to be the best vacation ever. (First one for me since '95, too, so just about any vacation would qualify, but this is gonna rock!)

[Cav]

Excellent News!

Now, if you could get him to shake down Dan Kitchen for the Keystone Kapers II ROM that was alluded to here:

http://www.classicgamer.com/kitchen.html

That would be even better!

Actually, How come Dan never comes to the Expo? I'll bet if both Gary and Rob Zydybel leaned on him a bit, he would come to Vegas. The dude loves to talk about the good ol' days.

-Cav

[digitalpress]

Thought I'd start bumping the guests who have confirmed for CGE 2k4 on August 21st & 22nd!

CONFIRMED.