Ethesis wrote:
I have to be out of town for the week-end, but I'm trying to get Sandy Petersen and Paul Jacquays to drop by the conventions with some other gamers.

Keep an eye out.

Steve;

Good to hear from you!  Sorry you couldn't make it, any hope you can get to Gencon this year?

Mike B.

Plaag wrote:If Paul Jacquays does go and some one has a camera, could they get a picture of him and send it to me?

ShaneG.

I'll make sure to bring my camera along just in case Paul and Sandy show up.

There wasn't the D&D one there?

(Now waits for King to post up some pictures of the event).

ShaneG.

As I mentioned to the other guys, the people that put on the pinball convention really did a nice job of making us feel like we were 13 years old again (Or in Mike and Doug's case, 25   ).  Late 70's and early 80's music blaring out of the speakers, disco lights, and neon made the event as authentic as possible.  If there had been a weird looking dude in the corner of the room next to a Donkey Kong machine selling pot I probably would have thought I had stepped into a time machine.

I wasn't much of a pinball geek back in the day because when I was growing up arcade games had pretty much pushed pinball out of the spotlight.  Only the older kids played pinball at the local arcade, while my friends and I were honing our hand-eye coordination on classics like Tempest, Asteroids, Defender, and Missile Command.  Luckily there were a few arcade machines there and two or three of the newer Multigame arcade machines that play ten or twenty different classics.  I forgot how bad I was at Robotron: 2084 and Sinistar.  I also remember how much more fun it was to play Joust with two people.  There were a few times I felt really pathetic next to Mike, Doug, and Brian when playing pinball because I just didnt have much experience playing those clunky games and always seemed to hit the flipper right before or after the ball hit it.

But I found my groove again after dialing up Galaga on one of the arcade cabinets.  I had been a decent Galaga player back in the day but nothing exceptional.  The first time I played it I racked up a little over 80,000 and ended up getting high score.  Not bad considering it has been several years since I played it.  I couple of hours later I was walking around the hall and noticed the machine was deserted.  I walked up to it and started up a second Galaga game.  I picked up the second ship at the end of stage two and proceeded to waste all 40 alien ships in the challenging stage.  Now normally on stage three or four I would get greedy trying to get all the bonus ships and lose one of the two ships.  Not this time.  I played it safe and got through the next two stages.  The second challenging stage was also a breeze and I once again took out all 40 ships.  By the time I hit stage ten I already had four extra ships and was still gunning with my dual ships.  I knew I couldnt keep both of them going forever and with the aliens getting faster I finally lost one of my ships.  I was still able to get 38 bugs on the third challenging stage which is a pretty mean feat with only one ship.  About that time, an 8 or 9 year old kid and his mom came over and stood behind me.  While I was trying to concentrate on killing alien bugs they were talking about playing Frogger.  Frogger?  Who cares about Frogger?  Here I was playing one of the best Galaga games of my life and some nutjob and her annoying kid are talking about Frogger?  That was pretty much all it took and my concentration was shot.  I lost one ship and then another in quick succession.  Only two ships left!  I ignored the kid and went back to the battle only to realize there was just no way to get it back.  The magic of the moment was gone and within a few minutes I was done.  I had been able to hit level 20 and had a pretty nice high score just a hair under 200K.  Pretty insignificant in the annals of Galaga lore but for me it was a personal best and a nice reminder that my best days are not yet over.

Too bad Sandy Petersen and Paul Jaquays didnt show up.  Or maybe they did and we just never ran into them.  So obviously I didnt get any pictures of them.  I did get a handful of pics of the guys playing games but I havent been able to upload them yet because I cant find the damn USB cable for the camera.  Once I do I will post them.

I think boardgamegeek has a con here every November (starting a few years ago).

Badmike wrote:Does anyone else have sore flipper fingers today?  Anyone?  Damn I hate getting old...had to swallow a few Advil to get the cramps out of my fingers.

What a wimp!  Errr . . . my inner forearms are sore.  

Sea-to-sky-games wrote:I think boardgamegeek has a con here every November (starting a few years ago).

Maybe BadMike can rent a table, and we'll all play pen-and-paper D&D, no minis.  

Prufrock wrote:Sounds like an absolutely great time. I will try to make it next year.

The more, the merrier, as long as Doug doesn't drive . . .  

As a youngster, my dad would take me to a little hick town bar that had one pinball.  They would switch it out after my dad got tired of it.  WHich would happen about every 2 or so months.  One of my dad's favorites (and mine as well) was the Black Knight.  Great to see that pic.  Brings back fond memories of me with my dad.  For those who do not know my dad died recently from acute alchoholism.  It was a brutal and ugly death.  So it really made me feel good to see the Black Knight pinball.

Martin

Deadlord39 wrote:Who are the people in the pics, King?

I went back and added descriptions to the pictures Frank.  

Deadlord39 wrote:Who are the people in the pics, King?

I'm the one that looks 10 months pregnant  

Time to start laying off the Bacon Cheeseburgers......

Mike B.