OK - time to catch up in this thread. I'll note that I polished
my post-contest posting (check it out), by fixing the out-of-alignment columns, adding one-hour game info, and fixed an error (on my part, from misreading the (correct) spreadsheet), among other minor fixes. As always, I note all my changes to my posts in an 'Edit' notation at the bottom of the post.
Now, on to some of your posts, since the one I did before leaving for the tourney.
I love Robotron but I'm not to good at Frogger and I suck at Journey. But my brother Jamie can score close to 100k.
I will also buy a CAGDC shirt and Brendan's Star Wars TGTS game and maybe another DVD!
Yeah, some players will love all the Mystery Titles, others will like only part. That's the 'mystery'. However, I am considering doing away with the MT's for next year. We'll discuss that elsewhere, however. For now, let's talk only about this year's event.
Oh, and thanks for purchasing those 'goodies' from me, J.J. ! You, and all the other guys who bought, really helped me out. Those people include Bryan and Andy Wagner, Shawn Livernoche, Eric Frankovich, Matt Torrey, Ben Giuliano, Will Rollins, Graham Ogilvie, Ben Falls, and Bill Holmes. Bill not only bought the most, he also contributed $10 to
CAGDC ! A big thanks to you, and everyone who helps me keep the site going, and helps pay for part of my gaming trips (which I cover for the site).
"You, and to your knowledge, anyone accompanying you to this event ('guests', hereafter referred to as 'they'), affirm that you (they) have never been (via any legal system) convicted of a sexually-related offense that involves another person."
So, does this mean no molesters/rapists, but PeeWee Herman and George Micheal are ok?
I had been concerned about the issue of 'criminals' attending events (in general) for some time, and after last year's March tourney, which was held
at a location that had lots of youngsters, I decided to add in (for subsequent events) a clause designed to at least
ask the question about criminal sexual misconduct (tho it's obvious it's on the honor system, and I note that the co-organizers make no guarantees of anything with regard to this attempt to have a 'filtering' system in place). You may have forgotten, Mark, but I first mentioned this idea
in a thread I started last summer regarding keeping criminals out of events. Also, when I was doing the write-up of
the entrant form for
the 2008 CAGDC Mini-Tournament last year, I implemented this idea, but was surprised to hear from more than one person that the clause about being arrested for an offense should be taken out. Don't get me wrong - I believe in the old 'innocent until proven guilty' ideal of our legal system. Still, I figured better safe than sorry... but, everyone (about 3 or 4 people) who I asked at that event thot the 'arrested' part should be removed, and just the convicted part should stay. So, that's what I put on
the entrant form for this year's event.
Oh, BTW, I put in the "that involves another person" part to avoid excluding persons who 'merely' got caught with (to me) minor offenses, like taking a whiz in a secluded spot (yep, like on that Seinfeld parking garage episode).
Yeah GL all. I want to see the 1 hour record for Frogger go down!!
Sorry - no dice.
The record set at the first
CAGDC Tournament is 216,990 by Donald Hayes, and the high this year was 209,090. Great score, but no cigar.
How did Tim do on Donkey Kong?
Glad you asked. As Eric Akeson reported, on the first day (Saturday), Tim's best was about 581K. The next day, he got a bit higher, at 605K, where he made level 14, screen 2.
Great time! Richie and Mark did a really great job. Everyone was great, great to finally put a face and a personality to the names.
Thanks, Bill - you're a quality guy, and have pitched in to help me out with forums tasks, on occasion. Thanks too for not being too mad about the missed T&F score. I hate it when a ref can't get to a score in time, but it happens, and short of not including a game, can't be avoided on an occasion or two in an event. Nonetheless, my apologies if anyone else had this problem.
My brother Jamie Cahill was in 7th place and almost beat Dwayne. Dwayne had a real hard time on DK Jr. though.
Let me tell you guys, the Cahill brothers were great. They were very enthusiastic, and helpful (like getting me water while I was busy working the event - thanks guys !). Thanks to you all !
And, they were great gamers too. I know J.J. is into knowing facts about the hobby even more than gaming, but for a teenager, he placed well (23rd out of 32 qualifiers). What's even more impressive is what his younger brothers did. 12 year old Robbie came in 14th (!!), and 14 year old Jamie placed an incredible 7th !! Well, I'll have full results up soon, and will e-mail all contestants (who provided an e-mail address on the entrant form) in the next couple of days, with them. So... please hold all questions on scores, where players ranked, etc. I'll have the info out soon !
I had to leave early but when I called Richie after the tourney I think he said I finished 11th, just missed my goal. My wife had gotten ill yesterday and there are obviously things much more important than gaming so I had to run out of there and thusly apologize if I didn't get to say goodbye to all the great folks I met during my 1st tournament event.
Hi Steve - you finished 13th. Sorry about the wife's issue, but I'm so happy she's OK.
Watching Donald, Jason and Dwayne play Dk jr really made me a much better player so little things like that are so great for helping your own scores that I encourage folks to come to these events especially for the knowledge transfer. It was a great time and kudos to Richie and Mark (as well as all the refs) for all their hard work and dedication.
This is exactly the value of tourney events like these - checking out the big guns on their games. Oh, and thank you back for the complements on the event. As you say, it was hard work - probably close to 100 hours for me, quite possibly more for Richie, as far as prepping games, fixing issues, getting games in for the event, doing phone and press release work, etc. We do it for you guys, and the love of the hobby...
6th Place Dwayne Richard
What the...? Did they patch things up finally?
Yeah, whodathunkit, MDB ??!! Well, Dwayne shows up at the event on Friday, as we're preparing, and a few people had come in to begin practicing. He says he wants to enter, but because of past things he's done with regard to me (I've posted about it on these forums, as some of you know), I told him he wasn't allowed (in a stern tone, of course !). Well, Richie escorted him outside after inappropriate things were said, and talked to him for some time. He then camped out in his car, and I found out thru someone that he intended to stay there until I talked to him, and I got info that he might be wanting to work things out such that he could be in the event. I was busy with contest preparations, so I ignored the situation for some time. Later, Richie encouraged me to at least talk to him, and I knew my good friend Pat Laffaye was going to arrive soon, and Pat is friends with both of us, and aware of a lot of what's gone on in the past. Well, Pat arrived, talked to him for a while, and then came in the arcade. He also encouraged me to talk with Dwayne, and offered to be a mediator. I just wanted someone to be there who was familiar with the situation, and listen to what was said when we talked. After getting a lot of the preparation done, I went out with Pat, and concerns on both sides were mentioned, and Dwayne was apologetic for what he'd done in the past that was negative with regard to me. He apologized more than once, and based on that, plus another positive statement (like others on these forums, he said that the hobby should be about fun, and of course, that's right) that he made, I decided to put things between us in a place where I was comfortable having him at the event. He entered, we did have fun, and everyone at the event was very well behaved - I barely even heard anyone cursing, which in this competitive atmosphere is amazing (and, something I'd be hard-pressed to do, considering my expletive-filled recordings that some of you may have seen, either
here, or on my
Crystal Castles DVD !).
My thanks go to Mark and Richie for organizing the event. Richie, your place is awesome and you did a superb job keeping all the games in shape for the tournament. I'm ready to sign up for next year. Thanks for everything!
Thanks, Ben. Richie's place is incredible, as is his dedication. The games are all in the best shape, overall, that I've seen in a modern arcade.
It was great to see you in person too, and a big thanks for putting me up at your place on Sunday night. Oh, and getting to see Barcade, and top Don's Crystal score was a nice thing, for sure ! Don had made 814,180 last April, and it took me five tries to top it with an 838,690 score. Not great, but I was sick (it started on Sunday morning), and tired as hell.
Did MDA get the idea of having an Iron Man type contest from one of my early topics " CAGDC should have an Iron Man".....
I think It's a great idea of having 3 ( I know, I know it's not for sure yet ) contest in one next year.
J.J.'s talking about the announcement at the awards ceremony that detailed the tentative idea I had about adding marathoning to the 'dual' event of this year (dual meaning the tourney, and also, individuals going for the world record on a single game title). To my knowledge, that's never been done, and would be an incredible historical first.
As far as where I got the idea, it's one that I've considered for some time, and it was talked about as far back as the first
CAGDC Tourney, back in 2006. Remember that I had
offered $25,000 in bounties that year, and Joe and I considered letting players go for them at the event. Nothing ever panned out, however.
I doubt it since he and I have discussed in the past and MDA has repeatedly expressed his disdain for long games in general and for contests in particular. It is the entire reason he started 1-hour scoring for CAGDC in the first place.
Well, it's true that I don't like long games, but that's my own preference. Marathons are cool, albeit somewhat of a health risk. But, if someone wants to try, I don't have a real problem with it, as long as they're in reasonable health.
CAGDC is pretty much a one man operation (MDA) for the most part. A small handful of us help out by moderating the forums, but MDA could use some help with other tasks. If anyone has skills they can contribute and can afford some spare time, please PM Mark to let him know and to inquire about what is needed. Some things Mark prefers to handle himself, but I know he does have a shortlist of tasks he'd like to offload to potential volunteers.
Thanks so much for explaining things, so well, Chris, both in this paragraph, and in the rest of your post.
The good news is that I have had some great guys volunteer to help me out, and will be implementing a plan on that front, to them, late this month. More details will follow elsewhere on the forums.
Wasnt the Gyruss score Bryan Wagner's?
Yup, Bill - the original post is now fixed. It was a reading error on my part, not a spreadsheet error. I was very happy to find extremely few of those during the long confirmation time that made the awards ceremony go on so late (sorry to everyone for that !!). It was my fault for not foreseeing the length of time that it would take. It won't happen next year, and plans are already underway to make sure of it.
Speaking of the spreadsheet, during the confirmation, I think we found that there were two omissions, one error (not bad for all the scores we had), and also a few mix-ups, which I think are straightened out, due to the similarity of player initials. Again, my fault for not foreseeing this issue, and I'll make sure refs use the full first name, and last initial, next year, to solve the problem.
I was wondering if there were 40 players and 20 arcade machines what was the average try's a player could play a certain game.
The tries were limited only by availability, and I'd have to say that the only problem games were
Galaga, Dig Dug, and
Donkey Kong, from my observations.
I though my brother Jamie Cahill came in 2ed in FF. Andy Wagner won money ( $10 ) but Jamie won money on Monaco GP. Same with Turbo did Jason come in 2ed on that game? I know Dave won but Jamie is telling me he came in 2ed.
Second on FF was Andy Wagner, with a score of 243,000; Jamie made 232,800. Jamie was first on
Monaco GP, and that (like
Food Fight) happened to be one of the randomly picked games that had $10 prizes for the top finisher (or, the person nearest top
who had won no other prize).
Jason was 3rd on Turbo, but the first (Dave) and second place (Jamie) finishers had already won prizes, and thus, the next person 'in line' was Jason. You gotta read the fine print, J.J. - all this info was on
the entry form ! OK, it was a long read, but always read what you sign, is my philosophy.
Well, I'll be working on getting the full results tabulated for the website, and I'll be mailing them beforehand to all entrants (in the next day or so), and will have complete contest coverage up onsite ASAP (hopefully over the weekend). But, it's a
lot of data, and pics, so please be patient.
Thanks to all who gave me DK tips- watching the pros play my favorite games was an amazingly dope experience and a first time treat for me. I caught Dwayne at DK Jr and watched a bit of Frogger and Journey (that's rare to see) I should be much better at the games I own, but I set the minimum on some new ones and hit a DK score close to par... gotta go back to Richie's and learn more tricks. Thanks to all involved (CAG, Richie, and players) for a unique and exciting weekend.
Thanks for the kind words, Shawn. I'm really glad that you, and many other contestants, got to see some world-class play on so many games. The
CAGDC event is tops for that, as there are so many popular game titles in the tournament each and every year !
Put the scores up from the tourney on the board or I stop bringing new customers
I'll have the results to Richie in advance of this Friday's Flashback evening. And, then the 'Knucklez' regulars can go about beating them ! Good luck, and have fun, Steve.
