Well, it's overdue, but, I'm now posting this summary of the CE event this year, as I saw it. To me, the highlights were (in no particular order): Tongki 'Jimmy' Linderman's incredible new
Pac-Mania world record of
3,733,860 points; Brian Kuh's, and my, world records that we set on the prototype laser version of Atari's
Road Runner; and my getting to meet the lovely Jeri Ellsworth (she's a nice young lady that's got brains to match her looks !). Also, highlights that others may have made note of would be: the premier appearance of Eugene Jarvis at a seminar, where he spoke about the making of Robotron; all of the incredible proto Atari games that Scott Evans always brings (including two or three that made their premier this year); and also the premier seminar appearance of famed early 80's gamer Mark Robichek, at the 'Tips and Tricks' panel that I organized.
To touch on some of the above, I must note that Paul Dean spent around $2000 to completely restore two games (
Spy Hunter and
Pac-Mania) that he brought to the event in order to run a high-score contest. He offered a $100 purse for each, giving out not three, but four place finishes for each title. As mentioned above, Jimmy Linderman, who holds the TG wr (done on different, and non-factory (??!!) settings), absolutely dominated the results on
Pac-Mania. The machine was confirmed by me personally to be on factory settings, and I sealed the game with tamper-proof security seals in order to be able to certify the results for my scoreboard.
Spy Hunter was won by Jonathan Koolpe, who helps organize the whole California Extreme event (no, Paul's contest
wasn't fixed !). But, after the one-day contest ended Saturday, Paul once again decided to show that he could easily beat the official #2 player in the world (Mark Little, tho Phil Britt also can score 1M+) on the only game he played, as he also did last year. Now, this is not a 'down' toward Mark, who has an excellent personal record of
832,620. It's merely noting an 'up' for Paul, who firmly believes that players from the 80's (and from California) were, and are, the best classic gamers ever. And, I don't really disagree, based on all of what I know (and, that's a lot - Walter Day has even proclaimed me to be a video game historian !).
As mentioned, Brian Kuh (who has a hell of a regular version
Road Runner score of 1.7M) and I were excited to try out the premier of the laser version of Road Runner. It was yet another unreleased Atari prototype, tho one can't blame Atari for nixing it, with all the trouble they had with their Firefox laser units ! Well, I set a nice inaugural world record score of
322,330 points Saturday evening, and then on Sunday, when there was a lull in the action around mid-afternoon, I decided to go for beating my mark. When I walked up to the game, I saw that Brian had come up with a nice
445,850 score, so I had my work cut out for me. I started out, and used my experience from yesterday's game to help me play better (this version started out much harder than the released one). Well, I neared Brian's score, and then beat it, with about 3 or 4 lives in reserve. Just after I did, and was at 447K, the background (supplied by the laser) turned to snow, and rendered the foreground (done with regular video overlay, like
M.A.C.H. 3) indiscernible. Well, I couldn't even read the score, but I thot that I had
447,1XX in points before it screwed up, which Brian confirmed as he approached. He said that he also saw that I had 4 lives in reserve. But, it was really weird that the problem happened when he was about 10 feet away. He joked that he had caused it, and I almost believe it, with the timing. Still, I knew that something had just gone wrong of its own accord, and Scott Evans (who owns the game) later looked at it, and said that it was probably the laserdisc player (which confirms Atari's decision to move away from laser technology).
Well, in any case, I had beaten Brian, and had the wr mark back. I figured that I could have had at least 550,000 points, had the game played out, tho 600K+ was certainly possible.
Earlier in the afternoon, I had heard some info about a gal that I noticed the day before, who was wearing the sexiest getup I had seen in some time. She had on roller skates too, and Rob Welkner, of the former
coin-op.tv, told me that she was actually a very talented gal who had decompiled the Commodore 64 processor ! Well, when I saw her skating nearby, I had to say hi, and am I glad that I did ! She was very sweet, and even offered to play doubles on her favorite pinball game with me -
Eight Ball Deluxe. She posed for some photos (see them starting
here, plus there's one more in the Elite Members Area), and even suggested we be in one together. Needless to say, I readily agreed (resist any sarcasm, Weehawk !). It's always nice, too, to meet a female gaming fan, as they're so few and far between.
Well, as to the rest of things, I didn't get to attend the seminar featuring Eugene Jarvis (tho I briefly peeked in, and it was a packed house !), so I don't know much in the way of details on that. The seminar that I organized ('Tips and Tricks') went well, tho it was much more sparsely attended, as it followed two of the most popular seminars of the weekend, and I think that everyone was ready for a break, and / or a late lunch. Still, the premier of Mark Robichek speaking at the show was quite welcome, and he did a bang-up job. He's an engaging speaker, and talked about
Frogger and
Pengo. I spoke about
The Glob and
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Finally, Jonathan Koolpe spoke about
Tempest.To me, the final note regarding the show must be about all the great prototype games that Scott Evans (see his web site at
www.atarigames.com) brings each year. I know that the laser
Road Runner was a premier, and I think that the same goes for the proto
Food Fight, but I'm not sure about any of the others (many of which are pictured in my
pictorial coverage of the event).
RR was pretty enjoyable, and I also played
Akka Arrh a couple of times with Brian Kuh, who was very enthusiastic about it.
Well, next time I intend to play a bit more, and miss less of the show. This year, I had to miss a chunk while doing the 'Tips and Tricks' seminar, but, I also missed a bit too much on side trips, and will strive to keep those to a minimum next year. However, the side trips did generate quite a few pictures, and I loved each and every one of them. Be sure to get the scoop by checking out my picture page, where you'll see my meeting up with: Franz Lanzinger (
Crystal Castles designer) and other great gamers; and also Mike Hally, Atari game designer extraordinaire. Plus, I made trips (with other gamers in tow) to: Golfland, a famed California arcade; the former Atari / Midway building in Milpitas; and to Dave and Buster's, a modern arcade that is a perfect example of the excess (in every way) of modern arcade games. Enjoy all the pictorial coverage, and do try to attend CE next year - you won't be sorry !
