I was only there for Friday/Saturday. Definitely a lot
better than the 1 day I did last year but also a lot more physically draining.
On the second day, I was dragging a little bit.
Didn't buy any games in the dealer room. There was some nice
looking repro/homebrew/romhack carts that I was tempted by, but saw no vintage
games I was hunting for at an attractive price.
I packed a lot of activity into this time and didn't have a
lot of downtime to socialize. I came alone, and didn't have anyone coming to
meet up with. I'm a little disappointed I didn't really talk to more people,
but I have a bit of social anxiety, so that is kind of daunting for me, (easier
if someone else is initiating) There were a few people from NA, twitter and
facebook that I have chatted with online in attendance, but we never crossed
paths. (Or maybe we did and I just didn't recognize them.)
Here's some of the things I did and my impression
Atari 1-1 documentary: Pretty well done. ran a little too
long. Similar to the Atari game over doc
Power of Glove Documentary: Also a pretty good documentary,
although I was really tired and had trouble staying awake through it.
GamerQuest: I had a lot of fun doing this. It was pretty
much everything I had hoped it would be. One of the high points of the
convention for me. The audience seemed really into it and were asking if I
could come back next year to do a sequel. They gave me a laptop to use, but the
wifi was so awful that I couldn't get my images to download so I ended up
running it off my phone instead. It worked okay until the battery on my phone
died (luckily it was close to the end). I was actually surprised that the
audience were able to finish the game. (I gave out moonpies as prizes to
everyone who solved a puzzle within the game)
I read a review of my panel on someone else's blog who said
that it compared favorably to the Action Castle panel from the previous year,
however they said some parts could have been better, particularly my audience
management, which I kinda fumbled... I started off by going round robin to
everyone in the room, but then switch to calling on people raising hands.
Neither method was great. I should have had them form a line at a microphone.
This would have helped me to hear them speak too.
breakfast cereal championships: This might have been more
fun if I was drunk. It was a bit of a mess, because they kept encouraging the
audience to vote by being roudy and making noise, and then shushing the crowd
and acting frustrated that the audience was being too noisy. I was dead on my
feet by this time, (around 2:30am) so I called it quits.
Super Art Fight was fun
The stuntshow was kind of cheesy so I bailed.
JS Joust: I had a ton of fun playing this last year. So I
played again this year. It was kind of spoiled when a guy called me an asshole
when I got him out. He accused me of getting him out after he had already
gotten me, but I think we took each other out at the same time. I quit playing.
But fortunately I gave the game another chance the next day, and had fun again.
Ice cold beer tournament: I had played a lot of this at
MagClassic on freeplay and found it kind of addictive. The tournament was kind
of a mistake because it was a really long wait for my turn and I was severely
outclassed by a lot of much better players, so I bailed and didn't try for a
second round.
Got to demo a cool new game in the tabletop area called
Super Hazard Quest. I will definitely support that when they launch the
kickstarter.
Arcade: Joust Pinball was awesome. Wizard of Oz pinball was
awesome too, (because of it was a part of tournament I only got to play it
once). Played some Indiana Jones and some Robotron. I waited in line to play
Pop'n Music which was disappointing when I couldn't figure it out.
Youtubers: I saw AVGN at a Q&A, he liked my question
and had a very interesting answer. (I asked if he would have gone in a
different direction with his movie if the Alamagordo landfill had been
excavated prior to his making the film. He said he probably would have, his
other idea was to make it about the swordquest prize contest and tracking down
the missing prizes. (He might still do that idea if he makes a sequel).
I saw Bootsy and Kyle at the cinemassacre booth as well as
Billy and Jay at their booth. Didn't talk to them because I didn't know what to
say other then "I've watched your youtube videos", which seemed kind
of pointless.
Concerts:The Oneups: Played a jazzy funky set. I enjoyed it.
but then for the last few songs they switched styles and it sounded like a
totally different band, which I didn't like as much
Tupperware Remix / ninja sex party: Tupperware portion was
mostly forgettable tracks with digitally processed vocals that kept mentioning
"The future". When Ninja Sex Party joined them I thought it improved.
But the audience went freaking insane. They were fine, but I just don't get all
the love. This girl standing behind me started crying and orgasming when Danny
came out.
DJ Battle: Was too loud, and not really my thing I left
after about 10 minutes.
Journey Live: I was one of the few people who thought it was
going to be a Journey cover band... so I was only slightly disappointed to find
out I was mistaken. It was the game "Journey" with live orchestration
which seemed like a cool concept... I stayed for a little bit, but then I got
bored and left.
Bit Brigade: They were awesome. So glad I got to see it.
(Missed them last year) This was the final thing I saw at Magfest before going
home.
