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.
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!
Copyright
© 2008 Alan Hewston & Scott Jacobi. All related copyrights and
trademarks are acknowledged.
