As I've written many times over the years
I grew up in Silicon Valley, just south of the San Francisco Bay
Area.
Growing up here in the 1980's was an amazing time, video games truly
were
everywhere and the arcades survived just a little bit longer than they
did elsewhere. Even into the 1990's there were still some great
arcades
here, the Tilt in the Vallco Fashion Park Mall in Cupertino, Playland
in
Town & Country Village in San Jose, and my old stomping ground the
Galaktican Arcade in West San Jose come to mind as my favorites.
Heck, the Milpitas Golfland really hasn't changed much at all in terms
of atmosphere and I was last there less than a month ago. So if
one
was going to have a show celebrating classic arcades there really is no
better place to have it than Silicon Valley. That's where
California
Extreme comes in. For twelve years now this all volunteer,
absolutely
non-profit expo has allowed the arcades to live again, even if only for
a couple days a year. Now that I am once again a resident of the
area I headed to Parkside Hall in downtown San Jose to attend my first
ever CAX show. A nominal admission fee to help cover the cost of
the show is all that is required for entry, there are no corporate
sponsors
at CAX, it truly is a collector created and run show that is made open
to everyone. Sensory overload is often a term used to describe
the
show once one steps inside but for me, it was more like taking a step
back
in time.
Think of five classic arcade games and
you'll find at least four of them here. Pre-registration grants
you
access to the show half an hour early and for those streaming inside
during
that special half hour, it really does feel like a time capsule.
A frenzy of cameras popped out to grab images of the games and venue
before
it became crowded with arcade patrons. It is almost like prying
the
door open to an arcade vault and being one of the first to enter.
There's so much to see, there's so much to do and there's so much to
play.
Then you turn a corner and it begins again with even more games and
memories
rushing back to the point where you become enveloped in the nostalgia
and
wonder that places like this used to create. It's simply
beautiful
to see all these vintage games and pins all running, their marquees
shining,
their start buttons flashing, their attract screens playing. Best
of all they're all on free play or have a credit switch. It's
almost
as if the greatest arcade you could possibly imagine was laid before
you
and was at your disposal for play.
The show floor was laid out in U shaped
banks of machines starting at the door which eventually followed the
walls
once passed two banks of machines. After that pinball machines
lined
one wall until they neared the corner where the mini-sized cabaret
arcade
cabinets took over. A few cockpit cabinets lined the back wall
before
reaching the Twin Galaxies high score and California Extreme pinball
competitions
in the adjacent corner. A few vendor tables took up the final
wall
until running back to the entrance where T-shirts could be
purchased.
The center of the room was reserved for cocktail tables, easily over a
dozen of them. Just beyond the cocktail area a giant video screen
played 80's music videos streamed off a laserdisc video jukebox.
The rest of the hall was filled with a few more rows of pinball
machines
as well as a few more U shaped banks of arcade cabinets, in other words
the place was packed with games.
And the games... amazing games in amazing
condition. A few prototype cabinets show up every year and I felt
very fortunate to try my hand at the unreleased Marble Madness II:
Marble
Man, Hard Drivin's Airborne, and Beavis and Butt-head. Hard
Drivin's
Airborne was my favorite of the prototype games, imagine Hard Drivin'
mixed
with the flying cars from the film Back to the Future Part II, complete
with a steering wheel that doubles as a flight yolk by pushing in and
pulling
out. It even blows wind in your face to simulate the feeling of
flight.
There was a good selection of laserdisc games although talking to one
other
attendee there were fewer this year than last. Just the same, I
hadn't
seen a Super Don-Quixote in practically forever but there was one
there.
Lots of my favorite games were at the show as well and those who are
regular
readers of my columns here at RTM will recognize some of the
names.
There was a good condition Paperboy upright, Indiana Jones and the
Temple
of Doom, and two Joust cocktails which all got more than a few plays
from
me. I hadn't stood before a Xybots cabinet in years but there was
one there and lots of two player action on it as well. By far one
of my favorite machines at the show was a Bosconian cabaret, a game
that
never really was all that popular sadly but one I've always really
enjoyed.
Played quite a bit of another of my favorites, S.T.U.N. Runner, as
well.
I held high score on Galaga '88 all day Saturday (471,280 at 5-27, set
it early in the morning) and Sunday (467,770 at 5-27 and then improved
with 582,770 at 5-28) until during the last hour and a half of the show
my score fell to 1,610,900 at 5-29 (game completion bonus). On
the
front Warlords cocktail I had team high score and single player high
score
all day Sunday. Speaking of Warlords, I must have spent a quarter
of my entire time at the show playing on the cocktail tables, it was a
complete blast playing against and talking to people over such a great
game. For an added kick of nostalgia, at ten o'clock Saturday
night
the lights were dimmed for the last two hours of the show that
day.
It was moments like that which took the show from incredible to surreal.
While there were a lot of guest panels
and events just across the way at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, the only one
I attended was a candid presentation by Aaron Giles of the MAME
project.
It was really very interesting to hear him talk about the project and
what
drives him to continue working on a program that I personally use every
time I write a NES'cade (and previously Titles of Tengen) column.
I don't think it gets said enough but thank you to the entire MAME team
for continuing to refine and expand a project that, allows us to dive
into
the past for analysis of games we otherwise wouldn't be able to take a
look at. I know I wouldn't be writing here at RTM without it.
Probably the single thing I enjoyed most
about the show was that the demographic was very much as it was during
the height of the arcade era, everyone was there. Age or gender,
none of it mattered, everyone played together and socialized just as if
it was the early 1980's once more. However California Extreme
adds
things you wouldn't see even at the peak of arcades. Where else
can
you walk down a row of vintage pinball machines (including one of my
all
time favorites, Hit the Deck), play a game of Kangaroo and then look
over
and see Todd Rogers playing Gorf, it's just insane. It's as if a
collector let you into their room of vintage antiques just so you could
manhandle everything on display. That right there is the amazing
thing about California Extreme and why it should live on forever.
The collectors that exhibit games there do so because they understand
that
the games they are collecting are meant to be played, and socialized
around,
and be competed at, and be photographed, and be enjoyed - that's why
the
games were created. My hat's off to them that maintain these
machines,
haul them down to the show, set them up, ensure they run all weekend,
all
just so others can enjoy them. It's another one of those
instances
where the video game hobby is populated with just the coolest people on
the planet.
Yet with all these games comes
temptation.
Many collectors put their games up for sale, sometimes to thin out
their
collection a bit but for the most part many seemed to want to go after
other games while introducing the hobby to others. My Pole
Position
MAME conversion had to be stored when I moved simply because there was
no way I could get the bulky cabinet upstairs. Being without a
cabinet
after having one creates a void in your life so I was on the lookout
for
a smaller game at the show. Since that beautiful Bosconian
cabaret
wasn't up for sale I didn't want to bother anyone about it. There
was a Gyruss upright for less than $300.00 that peaked my
interest.
It had very small sprite glitches in the center of the screen and
needed
a little work but was in decent shape. However the bulk was the
problem
- for the current situation of my girlfriend and myself hauling the
thing
upstairs a cabaret would have to be the target size, or a cocktail -
nearly
impossible to find for my budget.
As the show wound down on Sunday night
I made myself comfortable at the lone Galaxian cocktail at the show, a
game that didn't seem get much play that weekend. I sat there and
played the elegant space battle while listening to 80's music videos on
the giant screen behind. My girlfriend joined me soon after and
we
sat there for almost two hours playing against one another. The
machine
was in beautiful shape and a little while later I mumbled out
longingly,
"this is really what I would like to have." However the price was
more than double what the Gyruss cabinet was stickered at, and we had
to
work hard to budget the Gyruss price to begin with. I figured if
anything I'd write down the contact information and maybe give the
owner
a call in a week or so once I had a better idea of what I could
spend.
With about an hour to go the owner showed up to pick up his
machine.
We got to talking and I basically was honest in what beautiful
condition
it was in but that I just couldn't afford it right now. He
offered
to work down the price a little but I told him I couldn't do it right
on
the spot. We took down his phone number and I told him I'd let him know
later in the week. I sold some Japanese comics that had been
packed
away for almost ten years and were only taking up space to quickly
raise
the cash for the cocktail. After a couple phone calls it was all
finalized, I would soon be the owner of a Galaxian cocktail table.
The gentleman that sold it to me was a
class act and delivered it, even helped me carry it upstairs! He
also made sure it was working properly, gave me the contact information
of the person he uses for repair on his PCB's, went over any problems
the
machine has had since he owned it and went over basic usage. It
is
amazingly clean inside and has the cleanest power supply, monitor,
board,
wiring loom and other internals that I have ever seen on a vintage
cabinet.
He also sent me PDF's of the operations and troubleshooting manuals and
I have a cocktail operations manual on the way. Galaxian cocktail
table #0367 now resides with me and I couldn't be happier. I've
wanted
a cocktail table since the day I first stepped into an arcade.
I could go on for days about the experiences
shared, the friendships made, and the entertainment had at California
Extreme
this year. However there's only one way to really understand just
how excellent the show is - attend. After making this year my
first
I kick myself for wasting the past eleven years by not being in
attendance.
Now that I've been I'll never miss another. This show deserves to
be supported and praised and to thrive. Thank you again to the
organizers,
exhibitors and attendees! It was the most fun I've had in years
and
I can't wait for the next one. NES'cade will return next month,
at
the show I played a whole lot of games that had NES ports I haven't
looked
at yet.
"InsaneDavid" also runs a slowly growing
gaming site at http://www.classicplastic.net/dvgi
|
| Apple II Incider: The World of the Apple II Today - PART 1 |
| by Donald Lee |
|
PERSONAL UPDATE
As I write this, it is July 27th. I hope everyone is having a great
summer so far. First off, I would like to provide a personal update. As
I wrote in RTM last month, I had a tough month of June with my job
layoff and someone hitting my car.
Though I am still unemployed at the moment, I have been told (though my
recruiter) that a company that I interviewed with two weeks ago intends
to make an offer. I'm excited and hope that the offer does come
through. However, since I have not received the offer as of yet so I am
still pursuing other opportunities as a backup.
As for my car, it took several weeks and two visits to get all the
damage repaired. The total cost of reparing the damage to my car was
fairly high. My friends were surprised my car wasn't scrapped. However,
given my job situation, I was happy to be able to get my car back
instead of having to going out and look for a brand new car. Despite
the extensive damage to my car, the body shop did a good job. The car
has been working well since I got it back.
In another odd situation, the LCD on my cell phone (over 3 years old)
suddenly died two weeks ago. I could dial and receive calls but without
the LCD, there was a lot of functionality that I was missing out on.
Thus, in addition to all my job stuff I have been working on, I have
spent a good amount of time looking at various cell phones in the past
couple of weeks.
THE WORLD OF THE APPLE II TODAY - PART 1
Thanks to the power of the Internet, just about every retro video game
and computer system has support resources available for users. The
Apple II line of computers is no exception. For at least the next
couple of months, I will go away from discussing games (too mucH) and
focus on resources available for Apple II users.
USENET (comp.sys.apple2)
According to Wikipedia, Usenet was conceived around 1979 and the
network was created in 1980. This makes it one of the oldest computer
networks still in active use. For those who have never used Usenet,
think of it as a bullentin board type system. Within the Usenet
network, topics of interest were divided into what was called
newsgroups. Users would go into these newsgroups and post messages
relevant to the topic at hand. Think of Usenet as the pre-cursor to the
web-based Internet message boards that exist today.
My first exposure to Usenet was in 1995 while I was attending San
Francisco State University. I was taking a class in which the professor
(a rather modern thinking professor) introduced us to Usenet. That led
me to sign up for a free Internet account at my school and my first
exposure to everything that was the Internet at the time. That included
email, the World Wide Web (aka Internet today), in addition to Usenet.
While email was great and you could communicate easily with your
friends far and wide, Usenet was just as important in bringing people
together on topics of interest. My Usenet newsgroup topics of choice
over the years has included the Golden State Warriors basketball team,
the TV show Knight Rider, Asian Movies, Dance Music and finally my
favorite computer system the Apple II.
comp.sys.apple2 is the main Usenet newsgroup devoted to the Apple II
and probably has the most traffic. There are also several other
newsgroups devoted to sub-topics related to the Apple II but are less
active.
comp.sys.apple2 has changed quite a bit in the 13 years reading the
newsgroup. In my early days of reading the group, there were plenty of
flame wars between people who didn't like each other. The flame wars
were a little distracting (but occassionally amusing to read) if you
were looking for help or had questions regarding the Apple II. Despite
the flame wars, there were still plenty of smart and intelligent people
around. You just had to sort through the junk to find the information
useful to you.
These days, the flames wars are part of the distant past. While there
is probably less overall people active in comp.sys.apple2 as compared
to 1995, those that remain are very helpful with people who have
questions. All in all, comp.sys.apple2 remains a valuable resource to
those who are interested in the Apple II computer. My participation in
comp.sys.apple2 these days is rather limited. I drop by the group every
now and then and read postings of interest. Ocassionally, I might post
a message if there is something I can help out with.
For those who want to take a spin through Usenet, you can do one of two
things. One, you can check if your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
provides Usenet access. If so, you will need to use a newsreader
program to access the Usenet. There are plenty of newsreading
applications around. Use Google and look them up for yourself.
Alternatively, you can just use Google Groups, which provides you
access to the Usenet via your web browser. You'll have to sign up for a
Google account, but it is worth it. You can use your existing web
browser and post messages on the Usenet like modern web based message
boards.
KANSASFEST - http://www.kfest.org/
No matter if you're a Macintosh computer user, a Consumer Electronics
junkie or just a retro-gamer, there's probably a trade show or
convention out there for you. Macintosh users have MacWorld. Electronic
junkies have the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. While I'm not
sure now how many Retro-Gaming trade shows are around, I know I have
seen some postings occassionally for some in the Bay Area.
For Apple II users, there is KansasFest. KansasFest (originally the
A2-Central Summer Conference) has been held annually for 19 years. In
fact, the most recent session was just held this past week. KansasFest
is a 5 day gathering of people actively involved in the Apple II
community. Information sessions and product demos are usually held in
the morning and afternoon while games and other activities go on into
the evening (and beyond many times!).
Typically, new software and hardware products are introduced on the
last day of KansasFest and a mini fair is held where vendors can sell
their products to the attendees.
Interestingly, in all my years of using the Apple II, I have never
attended KansasFest. I feel like I am just a regular user and might be
out of place with all these hardware/software gurus who have created
all sorts of outstanding projects using the Apple II.
I do have great fun in reading the summaries and seeing the pictures of
people at the show. The website has archives of some of the recent
year's activities, so check it out if you are interested.
JUICED.GS - http://www.juiced.gs/
The Apple II line of computers has been out of production for many
years now. It may surprise people that there is still a PRINT
PUBLICATION devoted to the Apple II (primarily the IIGS).
JUICED.GS was conceived and created by Max Jones in 1996. Thirteen
years later, the magazine is still alive and kicking. The magaizne
remains devoted to reporting the latest news in the Apple II world and
helping users get the best out of their Apple IIGS machines. JUICED.GS
is published on a quarterly basis.
Though the magazine has been around for 13 years, I have never
personally subscribed to it as I used an Apple IIe and didn't think the
magazine would serve any use for me. However, from reading the sample
issues that are available online, the writing is top notch and well
worth the money for those interested in pushing the IIGS to the max. In
the future, I will discuss some of the Apple II magazines that I have
read over the years.
Thanks for reading. Next month, I will discuss even more Apple II
resources that are available on the Internet.
My friend and I spoke for hours about the glorious eighties and how we both got a C64 bundle for Christmas which came with several educational programs on compact cassette, (The tape version being cheaper, not to mention the espoused educational benefits, helping us win over our parents to purchase it) also a Commodore branded game in cartridge format plus the dreaded Commodore joystick.
After the phone conversation I decided to try and track down a dreaded triangular C64 joystick. After scouring the net for hours I had not even found a picture! I was starting to think every stick had been smashed before anyone even took a picture of one but then I found it…
The
retrogaming collection for the month is Midway Arcade Treasures for the
PlayStation 2 (released in 2003). It was subsequently followed by
Volumes 2 and 3.
Hi all!
I'd like to share with you some video game memories from my childhood.
It all started back in the mid to late eighties. It was getting
relatively close to my birthday (my 13th I believe) and my parents
agreed to buy me a brand new video game system of my choice. For weeks
I agonized over this crucial, life-changing decision! ;-) I found
myself constantly looking at the Sears catalog trying to decide between
three different video game systems: (1) the Atari XE Computer System,
(2) the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and (3) the Sega Master
System (SMS). Each had their own appeal to me. The Atari computer
system was intriguing, as it had a game in it's library called “Star
Raiders II”, and Star Raiders just happened to be one of my most
favorite games that I had for my Atari 2600 (I'm sure I'm not alone in
this), not to mention the screen-shot shown in the Sears catalog
actually showed the surface of a planet (in color!). The NES was, of
course, the most popular system to have at the time, and it had the
largest game library. The SMS was also appealing, as I had actually
tried it (and liked it) at a friend's house a few months before my
birthday (I played Ghostbusters, Hang-On, and Safari Hunt), and the
system itself just looked cool. Anyway after much debate, I finally
chose the SMS.
After playing the included Sega Combo-cartridge (Hang-On/Safari Hunt)
to death for months after I got my SMS, I was successful in convincing
my parents that it was time I got another game. I didn't know too much
about the other games in the library, but Alien Syndrome looked
intriguing. I must have called 6 stores in Brooklyn trying to find that
game, and the last one had it. After having an early dinner with my
parents at a diner on a Sunday afternoon, my dad drove to the store. I
went inside, and to my dismay (and as fate would have it) the store in
fact did NOT have Alien Syndrome. I was crushed. Even so, I looked at
the other games that were in stock just to see if there was anything
else that looked interesting. It was then that history was made, as I
feasted my eyes on what would become my favorite shoot-em-up game of
all time...Space Harrier! The game itself was one of Sega's elite
“Two-Mega Cartridge” titles..which meant to me better graphics and
greater depth of game play. I decided to throw caution to the wind, and
buy it.
Fast forward a couple of years, and one of my friend's dad offered to
drive my friend and I to a video arcade at the other side of town
called More Fun. (Now bear in mind that I was an only child, and my
parents were a bit over-protective of me, and at that point in my life
I really didn't get out that much, so gaming was a great distraction
for me.) When we got there my friend and I played a couple of the old
classics (I believe Ms. Pac-Man was one of them.) We also played the
first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game, which to this day I
still think is great (so much so that I currently own an original
arcade board set for this game).
Fast forward MANY years to the present, and I'm almost 33 years old. I
have a good job, and a great wife, yet I still don't own a Space
Harrier arcade machine...but I DO own the Sega 32X version of the game,
which I'm sure many of you know is virtually identical to the arcade
version. Yes, I know Sega Ages for the Sega Saturn, and the more
recently released Space Harrier Collection for the PS2 have what many
call “superior” versions of Space Harrier, which are a bit closer to
the arcade version than the 32X one, but for some reason I just love
the fact that one little 32X cartridge can actually hold virtually all
of the excitement in graphics and audio that the original arcade
machine contains! It took Sega two (in reality more like 1½)
more game console releases after the SMS to have just one of my little
childhood dreams come true! That is my story. God bless!
