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Homebrew Carts and Coin-Ops - Phillyclassic 5
Jason Scott writes "I've put up my gallery of images from Phillyclassic 5, taken on Saturday, March 20th (and posted that night). Phillyclassic is a large classic games convention being held in King of Prussia, PA. They have a very informative webpage with details... I drove 600 miles in one day to stop in, and it was worth it. Homebrew carts for sale, lots of free arcade games to play, and all manner of vendors and characters. The convention's not over, either.. it lasts throughout Sunday the 21st, so if you didn't know about it, get down there! If you're nearby, you have no excuse!"
including home console systems from 1970-2004
What home gaming consoles were available in 1970?
the picture album is already slashdotted!
Hello, this is Linus Torvalds, and I pronounce Linux as Linux!
Who's game was their favorite? I kind of miss the old arcade games (which are hard to find these days)
My favorite game, and I can't find it was a game called "Black Tiger" back in the late 80's.
just a bit late there, buddy.
And then Civilisation, though it is not that classic. Prince of Persia is cool too.
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Nothing to see here
The Odyssey was released in 1972.
I am about 35 minutes away from this thing and it is already too late in the day to go.
A posting of this event a couple of days ago would have been nice.
*whimpers* *pouts* *breaks down into tears at the thought of 'free' gaming*
-Byzandula
Wow, that went down fast. That'll teach you to post a image gallery directly to /. :).
Anyway, I grabbed what I could and I figure it is better than nothing. It is mostly thumbnails, but I managed to get 1.5 higher resolution images.
Here is my very partial mirror
I've put up my gallery of images from Phillyclassic 5, taken on Saturday, March 20th (and posted that night).
Don't worry, here at slashdot well put them down for you
http://www.beyourowneviloverlord.tk
http://www.frozenchickenthrowing.tk
http://www.killercamel.tk
My idea of a classic game is chess, played with physical pieces on a physical board.
No electrons were harmed creating this post, though some may have been subjected to electrical and/or magnetic fields.
Here is a very partial mirror, but my webserver is downloading more as time goes on (currently at .5 k/s).
Its stuff like this that makes me think Slashdot needs an events page. had I known about this a week ago I might have been able to attend. It would be great if we could get say a weeks notice on geek-centric events.
I used to have a cool sig, back when I cared
Slashdot has been pounding everybody today, first vr-zone and now this poor guy.
California Extreme is a similar event held once a year in San Jose (this year on Aug. 7 and 8), though without the home console angle. I've gone the last couple of years and they've been great events, though the game selection can be a bit inconsistent. I hope to go again this year.
You can't blame them, the posters couldn't post this sooner, anything free stuff is just too much for a typical nerd like us, never mind if it's free, a game, AND a convention.
In a bit of shameless internet panhandling, I accept Litecoin Donations at Lbd2oH9QsthD1GfuUXPyka12YxvWJYnBVf
A very similarly natured event is taking place this August 7-8 in San Jose, California titled "California Extreme 2004". Last year there was over 400 video games and pinball machine games on the floor, all set for free play. The turnout and number of games available has been gaining momentum every year.
Check it out...
http://www.caextreme.org/2004-show/index.html
-rDude, I sure hope you got laid.
Seriously, I salute your dedication to the sport. But I also hope you got laid.
Coin-op server??
Then you probably don't want to know about Origins, the tabletop gaming convention held annually in Columbus, OH. Attendees travel from as far as Germany on a reliable basis.
And that's purely non-electronic games. As in, dice, cardboard, playing cards, and big, smelly dorks bragging about their 20th-level Elder Dwarf Mage.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
Yes, I agree. There's a lot of events going on of interest to geeks that I tend to not hear about until it's too late. This would be an excellent resource and tool.
For example, I just heard about Notacon here in Cleveland from a friend of a friend. I'm in the area and it would have been a damn shame had I missed it.
The guys pretty cool, for those who dont know him, he runs textfiles.com. Textfiles.com is a archive of old school files from various bbs boards from the time long ago.
I really wish there was more conversation in this thread. It's been on the frontpage all day and I still only have 17 commens over my threshold. I blame the colour scheme.
But I can't justify travelling all the way from Australia to see this. Are there any Aussies out there interested in seeing something like this at home?
:). The one-axis joystick secreted horizontally under the shelf that made that satisfying click you only get from a micro-switch (like those old clicky IBM keyboards, you know damn well when you hit a key). Micro-switches were in the two buttons as well, which were also under the shelf. That sounds awkward, but resting the base of your palm facing upward against the edge of the shelf you could hammer those buttons pretty fast. The screen was taller than it was wide, which was pretty common back then, and would simply flip to face the other side for two-player. Yeah, you had to take turns
:). I was the only kid in my entire suburb (afaik) to be priveleged enough to have a real arcade machine in my own home, while other kids were playing with their Atari 2600s. Of course, I soon became the undefeated champion of Galaxian. I would seek out the game in arcades to make sure my initials stayed in the high-score list. On one memorable occasion, finally losing my last life after playing for what seemed like hours and hours, I was surprised by applause, as I was oblivious to a small crowd gathering around me. What? Yes, hard to imagine these days, but this was in the hey-day of arcade machines
Cue misty childhood memories; camera goes all wavy as I gaze skyward, stroking my beard with a wistful sigh...
My dad was given a Galaxian machine to fix, one of the really nice tabletop ones: with the thick glass top three times the size of the display (plenty of room for your drink and fries
Dad told the guy that the machine was completely irrepairable, but he'd take it off his hands and save him a trip to the dump (the guy had no clue). So the machine ended up in my bedroom, and, needless to say, Dad was my hero
After Galaxian became passe, it served it's purpose as a very stylish desk and conversation piece. Even then, I entertained thoughts of modifying it. Particularly, I wanted to get at that indestructible joystick so I could use it with my c64 (commodore's flimsy plastic joysticks combined with the common 'waggle the joystick as fast as you can' gameplay led to ALOT of broken sticks)
I was too young to go monkeying around with the electronics myself, so my Dad, with his master's degree in electrical engineering, would implement alot of my ideas for me. We did alot of projects together, like a solar-powered remote-control car (for a school project), a guitar amp (I was a prodigious guitarist), kits from Dick Smith etcetera... What to do with the Galaxian tabletop was shaping up to be our biggest project ever, when sadly my Dad passed away, leaving my brothers and I as orphans. Even worse, later that year a house-fire destroyed the Galaxian tabletop (and everything else) and it was lost forever.
For people like me, events like Phillyclassic 5 are extremely important. Preserving arcade-game heritage means more than just keeping the roms and emulating them, it's about the whole package. I've played Galaxian on Mame, and it's good, but I would honestly prefer to play a cutting-edge FPS (C'mon, I'm being nostalgic, not stupid!). To play the same tabletop version I had however... well, that would be something. My Dad would be proud.
Here is a picture of a 'cocktail' Galaxian. Mine looked different to this, though.
I ran a benchmark on my quantum computer, now I can't find it anywhere!
Two years in a row I have missed this and I live only 10 minutes from where it was held. There is always next year!
Maybe this explains why traffic was so bad, but then again, it's always terrible.
Why is it Philly Classic when it's in King of Prussia?
"I've put up my gallery of images from Phillyclassic 5, taken on Saturday, March 20th"
and slashdot took down your gallery on Sunday, March 21st.
I give this show/con a "C".
Valley Forge Convention Center is a really crappy venue. Its just a bunch of big empty floors. No rooms or anything like that. So its just a bunch of curtain partitions and tables and stands. I guess I'm just used to anime con setups or something. The pictures on the website were misleading at best. If there was some kinds of big seperate Videotopia arcade as the page suggested, I missed it. There were just a handful of old machines off in a corner, of which 3/4 of them were set to free play (Wanna play Spy Hunter? Screw you, pay us). There were a few cocktail tables set up, but nobody thought to provide chairs. I was kinda digging a MAME cab they had setup, playing Magical Drop III, but then we got shooed off so that they could take photos with it. There were a lot of guy selling Atari carts, but I don't have an Atari anymore. There were a few old Atari 8-bit computers around... but no Commodore, Apple, or any other computers. My friend and I were going to play Warlords, which I spotted set up near the entrance - too bad two fat broads with their babies were blocking up the whole thing. Not playing, just sittng by it so nobody could get to it. I thought of asking them to move, but they, like, had babies with them, and I couldn't quite bring myself to do it.
On the upside, I got an N64 controller for $5, which I am now using on my N64 emulator, so it wasn't a total bust, and I did get about 90 minutes worth of enjoyment out of playing some of those old arcade games, so I guess it was worth $10, but if I had come from more than 20 minutes away I'm sure I'd think otherwise.
I've got an excuse...
It's called a girlfriend.
I was able to go out and meet the creator of pyDance (pyDDR), that made my day in all sorts of ways. I also talked to the director of some movie called Fungicide (that doesn't have an IMDB link); budget was $1000.00. Nice. And I got to play a lot of classic games that I wouldn't have otherwise gotten a chance to play outside of MAME (I'm only 17, so that was a little before my time).
In all: Philly Classic = Good!
Wherever you go, there you are!
Lots of great classic gaming events happening in August... a couple weeks after California Extreme, Classic Gaming Expo (now in it's seventh year) will be making its west-coast debut on August 21st at the San Jose Convention Center. There's sure to be even more classic gaming, arcade, alumni and other activities to make this year the best ever.
Check The CG Expo Website for more details!
Now THAT is retro!
I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
I released my new 2600 Homebrew JoustPong! It was cool selling cartridges and talking to people about it.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death